When you think of design, you might think of making things look pretty. Although this is true, design is so much more than that… it converts and ultimately solves problems for users.
Today, our Director of User Experience, Caroline Sober-James, and Executive Creative Director, Paul Lackner, addressed this topic while speaking at UW E-Business Consortium (UWEBC) on Designing for Conversion. Conversion on your site, emails, and in any other marketing tactic for your brand is heavily influenced by design. As designers, we are problem solvers. We focus on more than making things look pretty. We use data and user recordings to find what our customer’s problems and biggest pain points are. Then we find ways to solve them.
So, let’s get right down to it. Conversions are built on the basics: research, content, UX/UI, creative and testing. These all help with assisting conversions, which means they also all help with the design of your website.
Here’s what you should know:
Research: Know who your audience is, what motivates them, and what causes them pain.
Content: The content needs to be clear, valuable and compelling for your audience. Although people like to have options, don’t overwhelm them with too much information.
UX/UI: This allows for your audience to do what they need to do on your site without any training. The call to action is easy to complete and doesn’t cause unnecessary anxiety.
Creative: The creative needs to be pretty, engaging and support the brand.
Testing: A website is never done. Always allow for testing, always allow for improvements.
Good design focuses on the product and its consumers, rather than the person designing it. The most important thing to do is to make your designs about them. This will then help you create designs that are more than just pretty – designs that solve problems. Be sure to identify clear call to actions and allow users to get to content easily. And always remember, less is more. Focus on the essential elements of your site and represent the brand as it really is. At the end of the day, the design of your website should reflect all those brand attributes.
One sure way to know if you’re designing for conversion is through usability testing. As mentioned, a website is never done, so always be ready to solve more problems.
Make it easy for people to use your website. Ready to jump in?