When we do a website redesign project, we use tools like Screaming Frog to do a URL crawl of the current website. This step surfaces all existing website pages, including any that may not be visible from the navigation or footer.
While this step helps ensure our designs account for all content, it can often lead to new discussions around templates and pages after a project has already begun.
If we're lucky, we'll create a Change Order for the new learnings and move on. However, here are some other outcomes that might happen as a result:
- No change in scope (we think it will have no impact or do it as a courtesy), timeline challenges later in the project
- Request for Change Order, client upset or confused
- No change in approach, content issues later in the project
To help alleviate this, we're currently training our Business Development team to run a URL crawl during the scoping process with a prospect. We'll use this information to make more informed decisions about what pages to show during the design process and how many templates we'll need to build to support those pages.
It's often the small things that make the most impact. I have a feeling that this shift could be just like that.
This post originally appeared in Edition No. 102 of my newsletter. Subscribe here.
Monday, August 22, 2022
