How Design Makes the World is a book by Scott Berkun which highlights how design influences everyday life and how it holds it back. While I wasn’t able to get my hands on a copy of the book, I found a talk Berkun had done where he discussed some of the ideas and points from the book.
The point I found really interesting was about how, as designers, we should never assume something is obvious when designing something. As designers, it’s fairly common to see a non-designer make a mistake by missing something in the system and to say “How could they not know that” or “That’s so obvious”, however Berkun makes the point that we shouldn’t be blaming the user here and rather blame the designer. If the user makes a mistake then it is the fault of the designer for not strategically presenting content in a way that is naturally accessible to the user. This was really interesting to me as content design and content strategy are a current focus of my work, and considering how a user perceives content rather than how I perceive is incredibly important to me. I enjoyed this talk a lot and felt I really benefitted from considering how we as designers view users making mistakes.
Scott Berkun | How Design Makes The World | Talks at Google
The Conversion Funnel is a method of content strategy which relates to the way in which content is arranged to cultivate user engagement. The conversion funnel arranges the most important or attention-grabbing information first, then the supporting information second to increase interest, followed by more detailed information to make the user want and desire what the information is about, and finally showing how the user can get the thing.
The conversion funnel can be easily seen on almost all storefront websites used by large companies. For example, on the Lego website, we’re instantly presented with large flashy images of highlighted products to grab the user’s attention.
In the next level, we’re shown a lot more products with general information to show users the important points they need to know about the products, such as price, recommended age, and ratings.
And on the final level, there’s a much more in-depth breakdown of information to confirm the user’s want for the product alongside an action area to entice the user to buy the product.
While it seems like such a simple thing due to how widely it is used, I can really see the benefit of the conversion funnel as not only a method of arranging content but also a way to encourage users to buy or engage with the product. The levelled steps help to not overwhelm the user which in turn encourages the user to buy the product as they’re seeing things in isolation and aren’t getting distracted.
The conversion funnel is definitely something I will keep in mind to use in the future as I can see how powerful a tool it can be at organising content in a way which encourages users to want the product.
Conversion Funnel Optimization: How a Good UX Plays a Role