Everyone is doing web redesign. I commented on the Mint redesign couple weeks ago. (Maybe corporate sites should have something similar to WordPress’s Themes, so they could keep change the web site skins)

The real topic that I want to talk about today is: web redesign is not a done deal. It is actually only one part of your web site’s iterative testing. Collecting feedback and doing usability after redesign open a door for the further improvement. You can also look at web redesign as a long tail effect:

• the redesign itself is a big head - lots of things have changed on the site
• the continuous refining after the redesign - move some content around, enlarge a button, get rid of some useless steps - all these little things might add up to big impact and better enhancement to the overall web site improvement. This could be the long tail

Look at TechCrunch’s redesign blog and LOOK at the 6-page long comments on this blog. These are free and first hand user feedback on their redesign. No matter how the redesign itself did, better or worse, if TechCrunch really listen to their users voice and act upon those feedback, I’m sure that their site will be eventually be better. It’s a win-win situation: better site and happy users!

My advice is: redesign is not the end of the game:

• take it as the start of your iterative optimization opportunity
• ask your audience how you did, what they liked and not
• React on their feedback.

This is the best way to get your redesign money paid off

Update:

Another example is jQuery’s redesign post & user feedback.

One more TechCruch redesign comment

Tags: redesign, social media, techcrunch, user generated content, web redesign

I was reading my RSS news. I landed on Viewzi’s website from one article “3 Unique Search Engines of the Future“. Viewzi is being considered as one of these 3. As reading their blog, I found out one blog titled “Internal Report” written by their intern. The page gives a list of people’s profiles that the intern worked with…these profiles really crack me up…hoho…Each profile seems so real. It is a good idea to have interns to create this blog and probably only they can tell all these real stories in a fun way.

Tags: blog, social media, social network, user generated content

It’s fascinating how Threadless becomes a legend as an user innovation leader. Crowd sourcing is really taking off and it’s hard to imagine how far it can go, technologically, economically, and/or politically. The thinking behind crowd sourcing is the true driver of technology innovation; it’s the real power beneath stock & supply-demand balance; and it’s also another format of making a democratic decision.

List of crowd sourcing examples (I’ll keep adding the new ones. If you know any other example, please comment):

• Threadless: the first web company who leverages designer’s work & votes to produce Tshirts, and sell back to designers and their networks.
• Mozilla’s Concept Series: call for anyone in the world to share their vision of how they would like to see the browser, or the web in general
• Ryz: lets users submit graphic designs for a high-top sneaker model

Tags: crowd sourcing, mozilla, ryz, threadless, user generated content