From a 03/15 post on KISSMetrics’ blog by Allen Greer, link here.
Evolutionary Redesign uses A/B testing to ensure design updates increase conversions and revenue
Total redesigns are often driven by the desire to keep up with trends/competitors/egos, or by a faltering core business–not by how actual users feel about the product
Some failings of total redesign:
- Too much, too soon confuses the situation and makes it impossible to know which changes were impactful on user interactions
- Most designers aren’t UX experts and aren’t trained to consider user feedback an integral part of their process–in fact, the business culture usually privileges a single person’s opinion over all others
- Redesigns are often done in the absence of meaningful, long-term user analytics that can be used to guide the process
- Epic overhauls take an enormous amount of time, require too many layers of approval and put too much emphasis on immediate “success”
- They rely on design by committee, which always fails
- Any failings and shortcomings are actively ignored from loss-of-job fear, rather than being accepted by the business as opportunities for learning
- SEO rankings can have immediate negative consequences with no window into where the problems lay
Benefits of evolutionary redesign:
- Elements change individually, allowing for measuring the change’s impact and making mistakes easier to roll back and less expensive to recover from
- Employees feel less pressure that this change could mean leasing their jobs if it’s not “successful” and are more willing to take chances
- ER focuses on analytical data tied to ROI rather than a few stakeholders’ aesthetics
- Allows for rapid rollout–and pull back–of new features
- A/B testing tracks real user behavior. If one type of button has 15% more interaction than another, it’s harder for employees to privilege their opinion over that fact
- A/B at a minimum can yield proof that the business’ hypothesis was incorrect or needs to be reconsidered
- ER is centered around user feedback not business opinion and conjecture
Challenges of ER
- Requires patience–no instant gratification
- Requires the business to dedicate itself to analytics and testing–not always an easy culture to instill
- Requires a dedicated, capable team, not a limited consultancy
- Cannot be precisely budgeted
Overview of the ER process
- Identify key conversions
- Use analytics to identify underperforming conversions
- Pick one underperforming conversion
- Design and test A/B versions and implement the winner
- Rinse and repeat
Allen Greer is a Co-Founder and Digital Strategist at FUZE, a full-service digital agency based in Miami, Florida. FUZE provides integrated branding, web and mobile app development, and digital marketing services to startups, SMEs, and big brands around the world.
