What is growth driven design?
In a nutshell, growth driven design is an approach to web design that revolves around continuous improvement.
If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: How does growth driven design work?
Growth driven design involves continuously making a website better based on research, analytics data, and user feedback.
This approach is totally different from traditional web design where the user interface and experience is based on what the company assumes is important. It places data and customer needs at the forefront.
Question #2: What are the steps in growth driven design?
There are three steps in growth driven design:
- The drawing board
- Launchpad
- Live and ongoing improvements
Let us take a look at each one in more detail:
First, using your learnings from your current website, create a master plan for your new, growth-driven site. A website audit could help pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of and opportunities for your site.
After the audit, a user interface/user experience (UI/UX) designer needs to answer questions such as:
- Who are your customers?
- What do your customers need from the site?
- What do your customers get out of the site?
- Why do they come in the first place?
- Is the website easy to navigate?
- Is the customer journey logical?
By peeking into the mind of your customer or end user, you will gain insight as to how to go about redesigning your website.
But that is just the customer side of things. Your new website needs to be aligned with your goals as well. So, along with your sales and marketing team, list down all the things your new site needs to have.
Second, once you have your action plan, it is time for your web developers and designers to work on your new company website. This is what the launchpad stage is all about.
Finally, after your new site goes live, it is time once again to keep an eye out for things you can improve on. Pay particular attention to metrics such as:
- Views per page
- Session duration
- Bounce rate
- Unique visitors
- Conversion rate
- Exit rate
After a period defined by you and your project manager, it is time once again to gather the team and discuss what you need to do to make your site even better.
Question #3: Is this design important to my company?
Yes, growth driven design is important to your company primarily because your website is your online salesperson. If you want to make a great first impression, you need to make sure your website is as good as it can be at all times—which is exactly what this design allows you to do.
Unlike traditional web design, which involves only reviewing and revamping your website every couple of years, growth driven design is always on the lookout for things to improve.
Question #4: What are the downsides to this design?
The biggest downside to this design is that it costs way more and takes a lot more work than traditional web design. If you have the budget and manpower for it, however, it has the potential to more than pay for itself.
If you do not, though, then shortening the time between your website revamps should be a pretty good alternative. Instead of waiting, say three to four years per revamp, you can cut it down to one or two. This would allow you to keep your website relatively fresh at all times without having to spend as much time and money maintaining it.
For more pros and cons on this design, check this helpful article from Dubose Web.
Question #5: Are growth driven design and conversion rate optimisation the same?
No, they are not the same. They are, however, similar in that they are both meant to make a website better. The primary difference is the end goal.
Growth driven design is concerned with the overall improvement of the website, taking into account things such as:
- Page load times
- Aesthetics
- Copy and messaging
- Layouts
- User experience
In contrast, conversion rate optimisation, as the name suggests, is concerned exclusively in factors that affect a website’s conversion rate.