Designing for CRO

At Online Dialogue, we optimize the user experience on our clients' websites. As a UX designer, I am part of a team together with psychologists, analysts and strategists. We arrive at insights through data analysis by the analysts and behavioral analysis by psychologists. We validate our findings through experiments, mostly in the form of A/B testing. This is where the expertise of the designers comes in: they form a bridge between the data and psychology. Here, the psychologist translates the analyst's data and the designer translates the psychologists' hypotheses through visualization. 

In practice, I often see that when setting up a CRO process or team, existing designers from the organization are hooked up to design tests. This reduces the need to look for a specific (UX) designer. But for a well-oiled CRO machine, you need a designer who is able to change user behavior and has the quality to successfully translate this into an experiment.

A designer is a designer ... right?

A designer is nothing more than another word for designer. Physical products and services around you are all designed. The people engaged in designs his designers. The word design refers not only to appearance, but also to how it feels, sounds, smells and reacts. Everything you have used so far today has been designed by an industrial, sound, packaging, interior, game, landscape or fashion designer. Every product or service has its own characteristics and way of design.

Different types of designers in the online world

This also applies to the online world. Here there are also different types of designers. I will take a look for you and explain the difference between these designers:

• A visual designer (graphic designer) is someone who creates visuals, images and other visually appealing elements, usually to convey an idea or concept. This is usually in the form of a logo, brochure, leaflet, business card, invitation, packaging or other printed material.
  Skills & disciplines: illustration, iconography, typography, printing techniques.

• A digital designer is a visual designer with a focus on digital expressions.
  Skills & disciplines: illustration, iconography, typography, screen design, digital expressions.

• A user interface (UI) designer creates interfaces for mobile applications and other software programs. The user interface is how a user interacts with the functions of a particular application.
  Skills & disciplines: visual design, iconography and interaction.

• A interaction designer (IxD/ID) is someone who deals with the structure of online interactive systems and the associated behavior of users. Interaction design (or ‘IxD’ or ID for short) focuses on creating services and products that are usable, useful and meaningful to users. It is at the intersection of visual design and user interface design. 
  Skills & disciplines: wireframing, usability, accessibility, personas, storyboards, information architecture and user research.

• A user experience (UX) designer is concerned with designing a meaningful and enjoyable user experience. The field of view of a UX designer encompasses the full (perceived) experience of users. This includes designing the entire process of acquiring and integrating the product.
  Skills & disciplines: interaction design/Human Computer Interaction (HCI), prototyping, visual design, service design and user research.

Designing for a behavioral change

During the optimization process at clients of Online Dialogue, we use hypotheses based on data analysis. In order to validate these hypotheses, they must be confirmed with a demonstrable change in behavior within an experiment (A/B test). This is why we mainly work with UX designers, because it is precisely they who are able to get a grip on the user experience and bring about this change. 

The right designer for my CRO process

For designers, CRO is a niche they have little exposure to during their studies or careers. The work process does not fit seamlessly with a standard design process of most designers. Besides just tapping your own creativity, insights from data and hypothesis are your main sources for your design choices. Checking and implementing A/B testing are also activities that designers typically don't often do. 

If you are looking for a designer for your CRO process, look for someone who wants to make changes based on facts, data and psychological knowledge, rather than designing from gut feeling and best practices. Not every A/B test is a winner, so as a designer you should be able to relinquish the design regardless of the time, creativity and energy you have put into it. A designer within a CRO process must be able to user-centered design and thus put user experience above design.

Working in the CRO world has many benefits for me. The main one is learning which designs work best to optimize the user experience of your visitors. Testing your designs and finding out what visitors get excited about makes your website more user-friendly and better converting.