When evaluating a redesign, your first instinct is to compare the new design to the old design. But don’t do that.
The first step is to understand what you’re evaluating. If you just put the new design up against the old design, and compare the two, the old design will strongly influence your evaluation of the new design.
This is OK if nothing’s changed since the original design was launched. But it’s likely a lot has changed since then – especially if many months or years have passed.
Maybe there are new insights, maybe there’s new data, maybe there’s a new goal, maybe there’s a new hunch, or maybe there’s a whole new strategy at play. Maybe “make it readable” was important 3 years ago, while “help people see things they couldn’t see before” is more important today. Or maybe it’s both now.
But if the old design sets the tone about what’s important, then you may be losing out on an opportunity to make a significant leap forward. A design should never set the tone – ideas should set the tone. Ideas are independent of the design.
So, when evaluating a redesign you have to know what you’re looking for, not just what you’re looking at. How the new design compares to the old may be the least important thing to consider.
It’s a subtle thing, but it can make all the difference.
Chris Meeks
on 02 Dec 13I think you’re very right about this, but I personally never look at an old design when redesigning. Do you feel that is common? Older versions simply aren’t relevant.
All that is important is the new version and whether it meets your current objectives.
Cristian
on 02 Dec 13Absolutely spot on. All design has a purpose. So it pays to know what you’re measuring. Otherwise it’s apples and oranges.
Peter Baker
on 02 Dec 13Although new objectives are a powerful way of shaping a design I think that there is something to be said for comparing designs over time and drawing on the good stuff: if a previous design was effective, it can be used as a measure of achievement. I believe we should seek to understand both the past and the future when creating new ideas.
Emil
on 02 Dec 13It depends. You need to learn from the old design if we talk about websites. The old design contains data (user behavior) that you need to know. Even if you are doing something completely different.
Personally I feel that a lot of important knowledge always disappears in a redesign.
Robbie
on 02 Dec 13Great topic here, in fact this exact conversation came up here internally as we were designing our new CrossFit Gear page at Road Runner Sports. We didn’t want to deviate far from our brand, but wanted to clean up our image and focus our design to help deliver the customer a good experience. Keep up the good work here 37Signals – your thought leadership is truly valued.
Chris Tiutan
on 03 Dec 13Spot on with this. I might add that testing throughout the redesign and subsequently basing decisions on actionable data is crucial to success.
Abhishek
on 03 Dec 13I am in process of redesigning our company website and this article is right on spot. The existing design was done 2 years back, many things have changed since.
1. Our goal is changed. 2. Our positioning is changed. 3. We have more understanding of typography now.
This article will really help when somebody is comparing the old design with the new one we will be coming up with. Thanks Jason for writing this.
Kunal
on 03 Dec 13We are also redesigning our site and took the same approach as we want to move forward. Thanks for brining this topic.
Carson Shold
on 03 Dec 13This is a great theory, but often difficult to accomplish when clients continue relating back to their old designs. Our team eventually got over the hurdle of comparing everything to what was done nearly a decade before with the client, but wondering if you had any tips you’ve used to get over a similar issue.
Garrett Gitchell
on 03 Dec 13I have the same approach in a different area, change management. Clients must be able to see and describe an “end state” before they can hope to change. When they don’t the present overpowers possibility.
It looks to be the same for design.
Once the possible future is clear though, history can be overlaid if it makes sense for the journey or the vision. Maybe that is true with design too?
Glenn Meder
on 03 Dec 13This concept is true of designing physical products as well. The higher purpose (the ultimate goal) must lead the way, and design must follow.
Gregor McKelvie
on 03 Dec 13Disagree.
When you design you design against goals, objectives, etc.
If your goals and objectives don’t change then a redesign comes into it and comparing the old output vs the new output is fine. It’s comparing one solution against another. And it’s possible that the old solution solved the problem better.
If something has changed then the new output is not a “redesign”, it’s just a design. So you can’t compare. As old and new are designed to solve different problems, meet different goals, etc.
Also, I wonder if this post was inspired by thinking about a new version of Highrise?
Tony
on 04 Dec 13I think there is one important aspect of redesign where I always compare new/old: paving the cowpaths. The old design may not be in accord with the new ideas, but the users will generally find ways to squeeze new ideas into the old design.
If you look at the data and the metrics of the old: what does the data tell me? what are the most common tasks? what are the most popular navigation paths?
I find, in a redesign, the actual usage tells a valuable story. Then in comparing the old/new I can ask things like: have I surfaced the most common tasks? have I made the most popular navigation paths easier? am I highlighting the data users are most interested in?
Comparison simply to say ‘is this better than the other’ I would agree is invalid. However it his highly useful to compare to determine if the new design now naturally matches the user’s intentions.
レディースシューズ
on 07 Dec 13watch was overly easy previously, but now it’s close to impossible レディースシューズ http://www.vontaedavis21.com/レディース＆キッズ-japan-23.html
This discussion is closed.