The Little Changes That Make All The Difference

I’m indebted to ContentVerve.com for just publishing an outstanding collection of ten user interface design case studies that illustrate how the smallest changes can sometimes result in the biggest improvements.

In one A/B test, simply changing one word on a call to action on a PPC landing page resulted in a 90% increase in conversion. Here’s that change:

90 percent increase in conversions

The magic of “my” cropped up in another example, where the following change caused a catastrophic 24.9% drop in conversions:

24.91 percent drop in conversions

Another test showed how the vagaries of colour choice can have dramatic implications on clicks. On an e-commerce site, changing the ‘add to cart’ button from a blue rectangle to a green rounded rectangle fuelled a 35.8% increase in clicks:

35.81 percent increase in conversion

But the biggest conversion jump of all came from a subtle rewording of the call to action for Fitness World, a chain of gyms in Scandinavia. By softening the tone of the call to action from definitive, closing language to wording that promises an opportunity to do further research, the company managed to drive a stunning 213% increase in conversions!

213 percent increase in conversions

As the saying goes, your mileage may vary so the only way to see what improvements you could secure on your site is to get testing. And don’t just assume the examples given will work for you. Your results will be a function of other elements on your site and the many other distractions presented on the customer journey.

“All well and good,” you’re probably now thinking, “but how can I try this out for my site?” To which, I’d reply, “Go find a great A/B testing partner, or take a service like Unbounce.com or Fivesecondtest.com for a spin to see how your designs fare in a live test environment.”

Go do it! You’ve nothing to lose and lots to gain.

You can read the full case studies on ContentVerve.com right here. Enjoy!