Lead UX Web Designer
Growth Marketing
2023
Navan
In our ongoing efforts to enhance our "get started" landing pages, incremental tweaks in hierarchy, graphics, and color had yielded modest improvements. However, recognizing the need for more impactful changes, I took a step back to explore significant transformations. Researching current trends in the blogosphere, I stumbled upon a compelling article by Elvis Hsiao titled "Why does minimalist design impact user psychology?" Despite my years of studying minimalist design, Hsiao's contemporary insights inspired a fresh perspective. The realization struck: our landing page could benefit significantly from simplification, an observation validated with a resounding "absolutely."
To address this, I delved into a review of our landing page's heatmap, revealing an unsatisfactory user engagement pattern. It became clear that users either lacked interest in our content or were disinclined to scroll further down the page. The primary issue lay in the significant amount of unused space. This sparked a pivotal question: how could we reimagine the design to optimize the user experience and make better use of the available space?
My objective was to elevate the user experience by substantially trimming down the page content and simplifying the sign-up process. I aimed to promptly captivate the user's interest, fostering a seamless transition into the funnel. With the goal established, it was time to do some further research.
It didn’t take me long to find other examples of simple, straight-to-the-point landing pages. Witnessing other businesses embracing this approach was enlightening, as it indicated that this layout had proven success. This realization bolstered my confidence in the project.
After finding numerous examples, I started a FigJam project where I documented all the different features I encountered. Things like, scrolling testimonials, customer logos, easy sign-up plugins, etc. I used star badges to notate the number of times I saw the feature used across the many examples.
I began by creating a simple wireframe, incorporating only the essential elements for the new landing page. My goal was to maintain a minimal layout that offered users a brief introduction to our product and an easy sign-up option. The intention behind this simplistic approach was to emphasize to our teams that these fundamental elements were sufficient, keeping the focus squarely on what was essential to drive conversions.
The next step involved a kickoff meeting with two members of product marketing, one SDR, two developers, the director of growth, one person from digital marketing, and one member of the brand team. Utilizing FigJam, I started by outlining the project's context, articulating its overarching goal, and specifying my objectives for the meeting—all within the limited hour I allocated. You might wonder, "only an hour?"—a valid concern. Yet, in the dynamic environment of a startup, that's often all the time you'll get.
Within the FigJam project, I presented a visual summary of our existing elements and the wireframe representing our objective. As the designated documenter, I meticulously recorded everyone's input on the jamboard, taking into account that not all participants had Figma licenses. Despite this, the meeting with the diverse team yielded a plethora of excellent ideas. It proved highly successful, providing more than enough material for the upcoming steps.
Having gathered essential insights from the various teams, I constructed a straightforward design, incorporating necessary ideas to align with the simplistic layout and address identified user pain points. The initial test honed in on a specific persona, specifically users focused on expense, ranging from CFOs to travel managers. This iteration aimed to address their pain points and included the following features in the design:
We initiated an A/B test, dividing the paid traffic between the original landing page and the newly simplified version. Within a week, we observed a remarkable 100% increase in conversions with the updated model – a significant shift not witnessed in over a year.
This project served as a valuable learning experience, illustrating effective management of a growth initiative involving substantial alterations to an established design. The success wouldn't have been possible without the collaboration of a diverse team of creative thinkers, each contributing their ideas to the project's success.
