My first redesign

[Linda De Rosa]

I am working on my first redesign. Anyone have any tips/tricks? We are shrinking the web down to 46, from 50, to just skip the 48 step. It won't be a "major" redesign, just a tweak of what we already have. That being said, we are changing the flag, the ears, the teasers, the base of the front page, The section headers, the features section, ... and a few other things. So much for a small redesign. Has anyone made the major change down to 46? Anyone have advice? Any help would be great. I am a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. And only have 2 days a week to work on it.

[Jeff Garretson]

Linda -- We did a quick turnaround from 50 to 46 inches in Yakima in early February, after getting the official word only about six weeks earlier. Because of the short time period, we stayed away from a complete overhaul, but still reduced our flag, tweaked some minor display elements and reorganized content in a couple feature sections.

If you're only dealing with the editorial side of the product, you should be able to pull it off without too much stress. The biggest headaches are on the display advertising and classified sides.

If you'd like to chat, shoot me an e-mail at your convenience.

[Tom Lynch]

Hi Linda,

I did a web reduction and redesign about 5 years ago to 50", and we'll be doing another to 46" later this year. (In the interim we're doing an optical shrink to 48".)

My best advice would be to create a spreadsheet of a thorough outline of the project, drilling down to as many minute details as possible. (Nothing's too small to include.) That will help you keep track of everything. The spreadsheet should include columns for checkpoints along the way for each item, like: prototype; computer coding/formatting; press test; comments, etc.

I also kept running notes as went along, noting progress, next steps and other details.

I've got two big binders of notes, samples and spreadsheets from the 2003 redesign that I've just dragged out to start thinking about what I need to think about for the next time. It was a big project, but it was fun and it was the most organized I've ever been in my life!

PS: It will also be helpful if you could find a cave to work in to maximize the 2 days a week you've got to devote to it. I hid out in our prepress department, away from a phone.

Good luck!