Keep familiar website routes during a redesign

What this means for your practice

Map old tasks to the new navigation before release. Keep important destinations discoverable and explain changes through useful labels rather than relying on users to learn internal terminology.

A practical example

For example, if “Patient information” becomes several clearer sections, ask your supplier to show where each familiar task now belongs. Try an old bookmark as well as the new menu. Reception can help identify the routes patients mention most often. The redesign should make those tasks easier while preserving useful connections, so returning visitors do not feel they must learn an entirely new practice just to find a telephone number.

Ask which pages reception regularly sends to patients. Those links deserve particular attention during a menu change, even if they are not visually prominent. A useful new structure should preserve the team's ability to direct someone to a specific answer without adding a new explanation every time.

Make this improvement work

List the important tasks supported by the existing navigation before redesigning its appearance. Map each to a clear route in the new menu and identify familiar destinations that move or change names. Test with someone who knows the old site and someone seeing it for the first time; their difficulties may differ. Ask the supplier to check saved links as well as navigation from the homepage. Keep useful recognisable terms where they remain accurate. A successful change should improve discovery without requiring returning visitors to learn unexplained internal labels or rely on a search engine to find pages they previously used easily.

How to check the result

Count broken routes and navigation-related enquiries after launch.