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Behind the Scenes of a Website Redesign

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WHAT’S STANDING BETWEEN YOUR CUSTOMER AND A GREAT website experiencE?

Especially if they are only mildly interested in what you are offering, they will quickly abandon a web experience that takes too much effort. Viewer abandonment can mean losing a sale, a donor, or a prospective employee.

Here are a few things to check to ensure you’ve created an effortless, persuasive user experience that drives visitors to your call to action.

  1. An intuitive hierarchy.

  2. A simple and clear navigation.

  3. Mobile optimization. 

  4. Clean, compelling visual design that serves the communication goals.

  5. Prominent, clear, and compelling CTAs that guide users toward their desired destination.

Look inside a recent website we built with the Little Theater of Walla Walla team—and see how their new site dramatically elevated their brand and improved the viewer experience.

Behind-the-Scenes of a Website Makeover

The LTWW leadership team saw the need for an updated, easier-to-navigate website that told their story in a more modern, compelling way—and one that accurately represented their own high standards for artistic quality. We worked with them to explore the ways their site could be improved and developed a budget, timeframe, and wireframe. Once in agreement, they went to work trimming, editing and writing content for us to migrate to the new site.

Before: The design had become complex and dated over the years, and the user experience needed to be simplified.

After: We introduced a cleaner grid, new easier-to-use navigation, and a cohesive visual theme.

The Process

A website redesign isn't merely about aesthetic upgrades; it's about aligning your digital presence with your business goals and user needs.

We updated and edited the photos on the site to introduce a more modern and energized experience. And, since it only takes about 50 milliseconds for someone to form an opinion of your website, we intentionally featured the best photos on the opening banners of each page of the site.

Once the visual look was established, we replaced the copy from the original site with new updated copy.

The most dramatic visual transformation in this redesign is evident on their homepage. The introduction of the red curtains in full screen brings the anticipation of live theatre to the site, helping to more clearly illustrate their story to potential clients.

Before: Home page took too much mental energy for viewer to figure out where they would find what they were looking for.

Before: Complex, messy grid. Low-impact small photos. Difficult navigation.

Before: Hierarchy of information wasn’t clear, making it difficult for a viewer to know where to go for the information they were looking for.

After: Home page simplified to showcase the top navigation bar and a dramatic image that reflects the mystery behind the stage curtain.

After: Big pictures. More white space. CTA buttons clearly displayed on site.

After: Every page has a clear title, so a viewer immediately knows if they are on the page they’re searching for.

LTWW brought vision and execution to the process and worked in close partnership with us on creative and structural decisions. They were decisive when it was needed, but also took time to hear from their team along the way.

Thanks to the tireless work of their leaders and volunteers, the project was delivered on budget and on schedule.

“We had CMBell redesign our outdated website. The plan they came up with from the wire frame, mapping, layouts, SEO configurations, stylistic choices and so much more just at the pitch meeting was impressive. They also held the organization to timelines and processes to make sure the project came in on budget. The professionalism, timeliness, insights, everything we wanted including things we didn’t know we needed or existed, final product and more was exactly what we got. We are thrilled with the end result and would gladly recommend CMBell to any business.”
— Martin Fortney, Executive Director, Little Theatre of Walla Walla