How often to redesign

Just how often do you re-design your site?

Are you the type that's constantly tweaking? Do you update it once every couple years? Do you change the whole thing at random whenever you feel like it?

 

Not really, when I feel that the site is already good, I stop myself from tweaking the designs and I start on focusing on the quality of my blog. Redesigning websites is a must though after a couple of years since the traffic is always looking for something new and you never know when you'll get that perfect design for your website.

 

I used to redesign my sites/forums every year. Usually we did it as an anniversary event.

 

I tend to redesign whenever newer technology comes out. For example, right now I am redesigning my websites using CSS3. This will cut down on the amount of images I need and make my sites perform better.

 

That's a good idea. I was only thinking about this from an appearance point of view only. You could potentially redesign a site entirely with new code and it still look pretty much the same, though....but be much better optimized for performance.

 

I usually just do it whenever I get bored of the current design. I like to update every once in a while but not all the time.

 

I do it every few months when i get sick of the current design.
I used to change styles but now i just tweak the banner and come up with a new one while keeping the same skin.

We have a halloween style on our site right now...members really love how it looks lol

 

For my last site, I kept different versions - v1.0, v1.1, v2.0, etc. Big changes were represented by a +1.0 in the scale, and smaller changes (not all little changes counted, for obvious reasons) by +0.1. I made little design changes almost daily, but not everyone could notice. The big changes happened every once 2 months, more or less. I also changed the site's design for different holidays: I made a Thanksgiving theme, a Halloween one, a Christmas one, and many others. It was fun!

 

Ironically for my forum, it happens yearly.

 

I think small changes can be made whenever to sort issues that occur on the site and tidy things up. I believe that actual redesigns should not be done more than once or twice a year. If something works then it is good to keep it as it is because branding is an important part of a site and if you keep changing everything it wont work well.

 

You don't want to make too many changes at once.
You might want to design a site that lets you post up articles everyday possible. Then you can do minor tweaks to it. You just don't want to keep on changing the colours all the time or the way how it navigates otherwise it will be no good.

 

Redesign when the masses demand it. If you change things too much, in my experience, people tend to get irritated. I as well as many others get used to things and don't want to see things constantly changing. If anything, just redesign the logo here and there to give a fresh look from time to time

 

So you only redesign when the majority of your users start complaining about it? That seems like it would already been too late to me. If it's that bad, they shouldn't have to be demanding it....you should've already taken the initiative, don't you think?

 

Too much re-designing can be bad and make your members a bit frustrated. A community is known by its looks and appearance, so if too much changes are done, you may lose some of the uniqueness that the site holds.

 

I like to redesign my sites from time to time, to keep up with the current trends. I mean some sites look so 90's and it's not my intention for my network. Not to mention I always get ideas after I have designed the site and can barely contain myself to modify it again

 

Well seriously I constantly tweak my design for performance and bugs fixing. i do a redesign in like 1-2 years cause a site is more like a brand and you don't wanna change it's appearance every now and then.

 

We used to do it early...but that became both expensive and time consuming. This last year though we went with just introducing a new skin to our selections every few months, giving the members the option of 4-5 solid styles.

 

New addons & features: NONSTOP
Redesign: define redesign^^ => Complete new design: 0 times
Why should i? People liked the black & gold colors, the associated the colors with the community, it was a real CI which we built

We included several tweaks with addons (e.g. popups, more web2.0 shit) but the complete design was NEVER changed)

 

I usually change my design every couple of months, but now I'm planning on buying a custom design that I'll hopefully keep on my site forever, because it'll be amazing, and I won't need another one.

 

May i ask why?