In the past year, web designers/developers seem busy with web layout redesign. Here were several popular web site that were redesigned to be named: Yahoo Mail (and Yahoo’s homepage is in progress), Xanga, Facebook, Wordpress (in progress) etc.
It is interesting to me that I really found some of them are using methods/techniques I learned from class. For example, Wordpress is using wire-frames (here).
Redesign is a important process which web designer/developer should handle it carefully. Redesign can make web sites stay competitive and meeting requirements of continuously updating user profiles/scenarios. But if the website has already lots of old visitors, redesign may make them unfamiliar with the web site and cause problems. For instance, Facebook had token a lot of efforts to make users comfortable with the new design like its new design FAQ, but still, there are drawbacks brought by the new design like devaluing some type of Facebook app (blogged by Dare Obasanjo here).
Actually I am working on redesigning a web site too. But you know, student’s life is always filled with homework and projects. Hope I can finish it fast and show it to you soon.