How often should you rebuild a website? It’s a tough question for organizations. Websites are expensive, and it often feels like the stars have to align to make it necessary to invest time and budget to a new site.

What should the triggers be? Well, one is when your site starts looking stale. Design trends are constantly changing, and tech and user experience fads come and go faster than you can say “parallax” or “horizontal scrolling.” Another trigger might be that the backend of your site has, over time, become a burden to you and your team. You hate making changes or creating a new page. Nothing is where it should be, nothing is named correctly, and onboarding someone is like teaching them to operate a nuclear submarine. (See more about this here.)

Part of this state of affairs comes with how the web has evolved. Sites have historically been very templatized, which made them rigid and resistant to changing with the organization.

At Smith & Connors, our philosophy is that when we build a site, it should be like building a house with a rock-solid foundation that has just enough flexibility so that you can change colors and fixtures, bolt on new spaces, put up walls, and more — and then, when you have to do a bigger renovation, it doesn’t require tearing down the whole building.

One of our clients recently captured this philosophy in two words: the idea that a site should be based in both persistence and evolution.

Persistence: Building a Stable Foundation

Creating a website that stands the test of time starts with a rock-solid foundation. Here are some of the core elements that provide that foundation.

A Solid Information Architecture and Content Strategy

You have to start with a solid information architecture (IA). This is a prime example of balancing persistence and flexibility. At the beginning of a project, the goal is to build a structure that can endure over time because it's grounded in the core idea of how your company operates. For instance, if you know you'll need a section called "SERVICES," this becomes a foundational element. Even if your specific services evolve in the future, having a dedicated section for them ensures your website remains organized and intuitive for your visitors.

A truly flexible IA is designed to accommodate new content types and sections without necessitating a complete site redesign. This means that as your business grows and changes, your website can easily adapt to include new offerings, features, or sections. For example, if you decide to add a blog or a new product line, a well-structured IA allows for these additions seamlessly.

By planning for flexibility from the outset, you save time and resources in the long run. You won't need to overhaul your site every time you make a change; instead, you'll be able to integrate new elements smoothly. This forward-thinking approach not only ensures a stable foundation but also provides the agility needed to keep your site current and relevant.

Core Elements: Consistent Branding and Design

Your brand's visual identity should be unmistakable. You need to establish consistent colors, typography, and imagery to create a cohesive experience. But it goes beyond just using your brand’s established color palette and picking some fonts.

Every visual element, from your logo to the smallest icon, should speak the same language. This visual cohesion not only reinforces your brand identity but also creates a seamless user experience. When users navigate through your site, they should feel a sense of familiarity and reliability, knowing they're in the right place. And the language should be deeply considered — your brand's voice should be consistent across all pages, whether it's the homepage or a blog post. This consistency builds trust and makes your brand memorable.

Your Content Management System

Your website’s content management system (CMS) should be built with scalability in mind. Much of this involves thoughtful architecture. Your CMS should incorporate structures of metadata that connect different parts of the site, allowing you to deliver content dynamically. However, it's essential to strike a balance.

Avoid locking yourself into a system that's too rigid. You know, for example, that you’ll need to tag your content with different services you offer, but you might change your services over time. The taxonomy you create for those tags should be an important feature of your site (the persistent part). You might change the specific services over time, but make sure that the top-level structure will last a long time. Just as with the visible information architecture, the underlying architecture must accommodate changes in your organization.

Additionally, the implementation of your CMS must ensure robust security and a well-considered set of integrations, such as how you use Salesforce or other third-party services. Will you always use these? Will you be able to switch things up later if you switch? Always consider how to set up a structure that can handle both significant and minor changes without requiring a full re-engineering.

Evolution: Embracing Flexibility

Stability is great, but your website must evolve. Here are some ways where you can be playing and keeping things fresh.

Modular Design: Creating Reusable and Adaptable Components

Modular design is like having a set of Lego blocks (see where we wrote about that here). Instead of building a static structure, you create dynamic, interchangeable pieces that can be easily reconfigured. This approach allows for greater flexibility and scalability.

We make our sites using reusable components: Design elements such as buttons, forms, and CTAs (calls-to-action) should be created as reusable modules. This not only streamlines the design process but also ensures consistency across your site. When updates are needed, you can easily modify a single component without having to redo entire sections. It makes your site fully extensible and scalable.

When emerging requirements come into play, you can accommodate them without wondering if they’re going to require a full redesign. Flexibility within and among modules allows for tailored experiences without sacrificing the efficiency and consistency that modular design offers.

Visual Design: Adapting to Various Devices and Screen Sizes

Responsive design today is non-negotiable. Your website must deliver a seamless experience across desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

Use fluid grids that adjust to different screen sizes. This ensures that your layout remains consistent and user-friendly, regardless of the device. A fluid grid design adapts to various resolutions, providing a cohesive experience.

Ensure that images and media elements are flexible and responsive. Use CSS techniques to make images scale and fit within different screen sizes without losing quality. This prevents issues like distorted images or slow load times on mobile devices.

Also, through the use of modular components, we can use what is called theming — in this way, a single CTA can have a variety of colorways or background patterns, for example. This is something that can change over time.

Balancing Stability and Flexibility

Balancing stability and flexibility in web design is no easy feat, but we’ve found some approaches that work well. Here’s how we do it:

User-Centric Design: Enhancing User Experience

We always start with the user. Understanding who will be using the site and what they need is crucial. By getting to know the audience through thorough research, we can design sites that make sense to them (check out where we’ve written about making sites for complex audiences here). It’s all about empathy — putting ourselves in the users’ shoes to see things from their perspective.

User research involves various methods, such as surveys, interviews, and usability testing, to gather insights into user behavior, preferences, and pain points. These insights inform our design decisions, ensuring that the final product aligns with user expectations and needs.

We don’t believe in designing in a vacuum. Instead, we test and tweak our designs based on user feedback. This iterative process allows us to refine the site, making it both stable and adaptable as we go along. Regular usability tests and A/B testing help us identify what works and what doesn’t, allowing for continuous improvement.

Making sites accessible to everyone is also a priority. Inclusive design isn’t just about meeting standards; it’s about ensuring everyone can use the site comfortably. By prioritizing accessibility, we ensure that our designs are usable by the widest possible audience. (Read our post about accessibility here.)

Our approach also involves continuous learning and staying updated with the latest accessibility guidelines and best practices. This commitment ensures that our sites not only comply with legal requirements but also provide a superior user experience for all visitors.

Innovation: Staying Ahead of Industry Trends

Our process has come from years of trying new things and keeping our eye on emerging tech. Still, the trick is to not always jump on the newest thing. Don’t be so anxious. Remember that what will make the difference in most cases is strong, stable, consistent design and messaging.

However, you can still stay loose and play around with the latest technologies. We’re always looking for new tools and techniques to improve our work. Our team is always learning. By keeping up with the latest in web design and development, we ensure our practices are up-to-date and effective. We like to experiment and prototype new ideas. This approach allows us to innovate and integrate new features that enhance both stability and flexibility.

The place where we try to be really careful is to stay away from the latest design trends. Like fashion, this can swing much too quickly for most of our clients, and you don’t want to be dressed like everyone else — be yourself, first and foremost.

Balancing persistence and evolution in web design is not just a lofty goal — it’s a practical approach that ensures your website remains both durable and dynamic. By building a stable foundation with consistent branding, a reliable CMS, and a solid information architecture, you set the stage for long-term success. Embracing modularity in design and content management allows your site to adapt and grow with changing needs and trends.

At Smith & Connors, we’ve seen firsthand how this balance can transform websites from static online brochures into vibrant, engaging platforms that drive business growth. Our user-centric design and commitment to innovation are key to achieving this harmony, along with a collaborative approach that keeps channels open for communication between all of us working on a project.

For those embarking on their own web design journeys, remember that flexibility and stability are not mutually exclusive. By implementing practical strategies like modular design, responsive layouts, and a user-friendly CMS, you can create a website that stands the test of time and adapts to the future.