How usability can enhance conversion optimisation
Conversion optimisation can be affected by many different on-site website attributes from promotions and campaigns to load speed. Newer techniques such as persuasive design can also encourage users and customers to do the things you want them to do in the hope of achieving better conversion rates. Usability testing plays perhaps the most crucial role in enhancing conversion optimisation and in addition brings science to the table.
5 ways usability enhances conversion optimisation
1. Avoiding catastrophic failure
Although it isn’t often these days that usability testing identifies a total nightmare of a problem that fundamentally impacts the performance of the website or app, it does still happen on occasion. If a user or potential customer cannot complete the journey then they are not going to convert. Use usability evaluations to make sure the macro conversion journeys are optimised.
2. Fixing broken journeys
Sometimes users find paths through the website that haven’t been thought of in the design and testing. Some of these can lead to dead ends and even exit doors and looking at analytical data doesn’t always help because we can’t always see what they have done to get there. Usability testing with real users will flush these out and ensure that they don’t negatively impact conversion optimisation.
3. Feeding Multi Variant Testing
Multi variant testing (MVT) is used increasingly as part of, or even sometimes even as the central pillar, of a conversion optimisation programme. By testing between different design options it is possible to identify which has the biggest impact on conversion. Usability can enhance these programmes even further by making sure that the design alternatives being tested are the best and the most usable options.
4. Fine tuning
Aside from identifying catastrophic failure, the majority of usability is now about fine tuning. Removing the areas where there is friction from the micro conversion points throughout the website provides marginal increases in conversion. One of them alone is not a significant burden on users or conversion but together they add up and removing them can provide significant differentiation from competitors.
5. Part of an ongoing programme
Rather than treating usability as a one off event that will identify a list of issues to be fixed over time, treat it as part of the ongoing conversion optimisation programme. By designing your programme to include usability together with design, development, analytics, promotion, insight, MVT and more. The big expensive spikes are removed, you embed user experience into “the way you do things here” and improve the effectiveness of the conversion optimisation programme.
If you would like to find out more about how usability plays a role in conversion optimisation then get in contact and we would be happy to discuss your specific requirements.
