Growth-Driven Web Design Playbook

Every project is unique. But generally, we recommend:

• Only testing for one variable, as to be able to trace reliable cause-and-effect links between design changes and business impact
• Approaching testing through a neutral, scientific lense, and being very aware of potential confirmation biases
• Documenting your process as much as your results
• Running the test for a bit longer than you're comfortable with - often, anxiety and the need to perform at speed may jeopardize the accuracy of your results
• Complementing your tests with user surveys and other forms of feedback

Growth-driven design is an approach to web design that approaches websites as strategic business assets. As such, websites are ever-evolving and should be constantly re-optimized to:

• Keep the brand's digital presence competitive
• Help meet business goals
• Justify its costs and bring a ROI

Growth-driven design is iterative. Instead of focusing on getting an entire website ready in just a few weeks, growth-driven teams focus on developing a launchpad, which is tend expanded and optimized based on user insights.

Conversion design is an approach to web design that's guided by the goal of maximizing conversion rates. In short, conversion design leverages UX, marketing & design psychology to turn websites into conversion-oriented interfaces.

Data and user insights are extremely important for conversion design. In the end, what differentiates conversion design from just regular web design is that instead of assuming what users want and assuming that what users want is set in stone, we're going out of our way to make sure that we're always one step ahead of user's needs and user's preferences. And data is extremely important to achieving that.

However, you can't just gather any data and believe that by gathering it, you're already doing something. You also have to:

• Prioritize metrics
• Set KPIs
• Set a north star metric
• Distinguish noise and vanity metrics from KPIs
  

Additionally, it's very important to understand that gathering data is not enough.

You have to extract insights from that data and perform tests to evaluate whether your assumptions are correct. So data is crucial, but it's not a map, it's a compass.

Four of the most common conversion design mistakes include:

• Over-optimizing to a point where you alienate the user or erode their trust
• Throwing information at the user with no true sense of hierarchy
• Designing once - and never optimizing again
• Failing to conduct intentional experiments and tests

• Highlight key features and benefits in a linear way, as each feature should be aligned with the positive impact you promise
• Lean on the pain point you're addressing, take a moment to acknowledge the user's needs, and reassure them that you're seeing what they're seeing
• Provide plenty of social proof
• If you can express your impact in numbers, don't hesitate to do so
• Compare your message's core elements (as expressed on your website) to your competitors' - benchmark and test
• Test, test, and test!