Postal service site demonstrates why homepage redesign should equal sidewide redesign
The United States Postal Service recently rolled out a new look for its homepage, something that was a welcome change. However, the postal service failed to follow-through with redesigning the rest of the site.
The new design brings a fresh look to the old, outdated design the homepage used to feature. The updated layout includes centering of the design, something that, with today's wider monitors, is very effective. In addition, the site's wide margins create a clean, streamlined look that also includes a spotlight area with shadowed navigation buttons.
The header navigation bars use the same labels as the old design, but are updated with to look shiny, a trick that ads depth to the site. However, the text in these bars could be a bit hard to read, especially for older readers. This brings up the point that young designers need to keep text size and contrast in mind since their younger eyes aren't as discerning as those of older folks.
To the right, a box provides quick access to the search and tracking tools, a good technique that also shows the designers are sensitive to the commonly-used features and links.
Beneath this, four boxes outline the steps for shipping a package online. Using effective icons and buttons to the various steps, this is a great way to organize content.
That said, one would expect to see this same design once you click on a link. However, that's not the case. The old pages feature a mismatched collection of note only the previous design but remnants of older versions as well. Not only does this lack consistency in a visual sense, it also can create confusion amount users since the navigation elements, though similar, do differ.
While every site uses a different back end architecture, it seems that most modern sites would be driven by some kind of template, which would make it easy to implement a new look. Even if this isn't this the case, a redesign would be a good opportunity to switch over to using templates since this will make numerous updates and changes in the future much easier.
That said, sometimes organizations decide to re-organize homepages within an existing design. This is a good approach when a homepage gets a bit stuffy or needs better organization, but the key difference here is that he changes are made within an existing framework.
In all fairness, the USPS could be rolling out the new look in phases. However, this strategy can sometimes have mixed results — it's a safe way to test the water and not shock readers with a new look but also can create confusion for the reasons mentioned. In addition, if this is the approach being used, a solid plan for rollout in phases should be in place and readers should be kept informed of the progress.
