Ask yourself the following five questions to see whether it’s time for a redesign:

Has the size of the site grown substantially?
If your site continues to grow and change like most business sites, you need to evaluate whether it’s still meeting your objectives. As you add new products and services you need to re-organize your information. In addition, you should consider adding multimedia information (audio, video) to sharpen your message.

Is some of the content outdated or unnecessary?
Does your website have up-to-date content? Someone should be revising spec sheets, changing promotion dates and adding new material weekly. If your website appears static, it looks like you’re not a serious business.

Is the most important content buried below?
Here’s where you need to do an “easy to buy” audit. By that I mean you need to evaluate how easy it is to find information and actually buy your products. This sounds like common sense, but we’ve all purchased online and know that it can sometimes be frustrating.

Are you using the latest technology, instead of hard-coding?
If you created your website more than 18 months ago, you are probably due for a technology update. This is also true if you started with a very basic site and “hard-coded” everything. Ask your webmaster whether he has some suggestions. You can be sure he will.

Does the home page design suit your current business objectives?
Does your website communicate the depth and breadth of your current business? If you have changed the focus of your services, added new products or want to communicate a different face to your visitors, consider a redesign for your overall website.

Antony Robinson at LIFE Interactive

What does it take to build a professional quality website that can transform your business or organization?

Let me ask you this first. What is required to do a painting? A Canvas, paint and brush.  What does it take to make a painting that sells for a good price and gets you more and more buyers for your other paintings?  A very deep understanding of the art, medium, market, trends, lot of imagination and various techniques which will make the paintings saleable apart from the skills and knowledge required to actually commit it on the canvas.  

To build a powerful and effective website you need to have a great deal of understanding about how the internet works.  Thorough requirement analysis, research on trends, industry, demographics, competition, knowledge about what would work and what would not, optimum use of available technology, and lots and lots of exposure and experience which are updated on a constant basis. To implement all these and successfully launch your website you need a number of highly experienced people specailized in their respective fields – Visualizing, Concept and Prototype, Information Architecture, UI / Graphic Design, CSS based HTML, ASP.NET, PHP, JavaScript, Flash ActionScript, MS-SQL or MySQL Database, Usability, SEO, CMS, etc.

That was a lot of stuff and a bit scary; to think that to hire so many experts you’ll need a lot of money.  Not exactly – Professional web design companies can give you all these at a reasonable cost, and you wouldn’t need all of the stuff listed above for your website.  For example if you need a basic website to tell the world about your company or business, all you would need is a great professional design done by a qualified designer, good information architecture, basic Flash animation, all implemented using an experienced HTML developer.  A basic website should cost you around US$ 500 to 1000 based on the complexities involved. 

Author: Antony Robinson, Life New Media Solutions

A powerful web design can help you find new dimensions and possibilities in business development and customer service.  Creating a strong web identity by building a website that projects your business in its best form, or developing web applications that can help your customers find information and do business with you in a more effective manner, all can determine the growth and future of your business considerably.

A business that is not represented effectively on the web has a very primitive appeal.  Even if your business or organization is aimed solely at the local community, having a website gives a sense of security and accessibility.  This also opens up possibilities you never thought existed. 

Author: Antony Robinson, Life New Media Solutions.

I feel that thinking of those times can give a lot of insights into how many areas of the internet could function differently.  Not just being grateful for all the conveniences the internet offers, but being able to look at how raw (against sophisticated) people could think about it and get things done.  Look at the vast number of people who are yet to get exposed to the power of the internet.  How can the internet evolve to include those who are not yet in?
Isn’t it interesting to look back and try to understand how our transition was to get a better sense of how the transition can be for millions of people, and the immense possibilities out there?

Do write to me with any questions related to the internet and I would try to answer all of them, with help from my big network of internet specialists.  Also please visit my website  www.lifemedia.in