A User Experience Approach to CRO - Managing Director at Amber Light, Jeremy Swinfen Green approaches the topic from a slightly different angle, taking us through the user experience covering; aligning conversion with UX, business goals, the three legs of the UX stool and how the cookie law affects CRO.

1. Making websites work
(aka Retail is Detail)
58 Bloomsbury Street
London WC1B 3QT
+44 (0)207 307 7770
www.amber-light.co.uk

2. P
oj Not just about immediate online conversion
e
ct
N
a
• Describe products for later purchase (wish list)
m
e
• Drive to the high street
• Generate leads for later up-selling
• Get customer feedback or market insight
• Support sales

3. P
oj What to look for
e
ct
N • Three legs of the stool: usability, utility and
a
m persuasion add up to the user experience
e
• Usability
• Layout, Forms etc
• Utility
• Do people actually want it
• Persuasiveness
• Copy, Credibility and Calls to action

4. P
oj
e
ct
N
a
m
e
So how can you improve
conversions?
4

5. Make an impression
You have 3 seconds to make an
impression…

6. 07/13/12 Project Name 6

7. What did you see?

8. 07/13/12 Project Name 8

9. What did you see?

10. 07/13/12 Project Name 10

11. P
oj
e
ct
N
a
m
e
Was that more or less effective at
generating donations?
11

12. Understand your audience and their wants
The triumph of creativity over common
sense?
http://www.leoburnett.ca/FLASH/index.htm

13. Show people where they are
And help them move
elsewhere if they want to

14. Offer different ways of choosing
Type
Destination
Inspiration
Don’t give me choice. Make it easy for me to choose.

15. Have effective search
• THE most important navigational element
• Simple search has to work well
– Misspellings
– Synonyms
– Related items
• Search filters should be offered
• DON’T assume people can spell

16. Bad search results
16

17. Better search results
17

18. Best search results
18

19. Focus on the product page
• Key elements
– Buy button
– Price
– Benefits and features
– Pictures
– Visitor rankings
– Special offers, free delivery etc
– You might also like...

20. 20

21. P
oj Image details are important
e
ct
N
a
m
e
JC Decaux research
using 200 people
Spot the difference? 21

22. P
oj Don’t forget the “buy” button
e
ct
N
a
m
e
22

23. Copy is important
23

24. Write for the web
• Reading age of around 8 to 10 (like The Sun)
• Lots of paragraphs, bullets, bold, headings
• Short sentences and short words (germanic
not latin)
• Key words to left of screen if possible
• Words are important!
– “Secure checkout” can increase conversion by 20%
over “Checkout”

25. Write for sales
• Have a great headline
• Describe benefits not features
• Write about “you” not about “us”
• Remember why you are writing (selling not
being clever)
• Write for the web (sub heads, short sentences,
simple words...)

26. Slick and intuitive checkouts
• Do keep number of pages to a minimum
• Don’t ask for data you don’t need
• Do provide links to basket at each stage
• Don’t force people to register
• Do provide a phone number on each page
• Don’t hit them with nasty surprises like
shipping costs at the last minute
• Do get an email address early (so you can
mail them if they bail out)

27. Don’t disturb people when they are paying
07/13/12 Project Name 27

28. Notice the difference?
A/B testing has presumably show that a “Carry
on shopping?” option is counter productive
28

29. Service is important (for repeat purchase)
1. Make receiving it easy
– When will it arrive (delivery windows)?
– Where will it be left if you are out?
2. Make it easy to justify the buying decision
3. Make returning it easy
4. Make replacing it easy
Amazon are great at 2, 3 and 4

30. Great service from Amazon
30

31. And finally...
31

32. P
oj How to find out what works
e
ct • Watch the user
N
a • Web analytics
m
e • Social media analysis (low vs high emotion)
• Ask the user
• Surveys
• Remote and face to face UX testing
• Eye-tracking and emotion tracking
• Use UX research to “power” A/B and MVT (A/B
testing on its own is not sufficient)
• Use best practice as a starting point
• Do something – even if you do it yourself

33. P
oj The cookie law
e
ct
N • The cookie law will affect conversion
a
m optimisation
e
• You can’t optimise without permission
• You can’t analyse without permission
• It is not sufficient to tell people what you
are doing
• Someone had better tell the UK
Government!

34. P
oj Conclusions
e
ct
N • Understand your audience
a
m • Accept that it’s different for every website
e
• Use your common sense (it’s not rocket
science)
• Subordinate SEO to the user experience 
• Look to the detail

35. Thank you
jeremy@amber-light.co.uk
58 Bloomsbury Street
London WC1B 3QT
+44 (0)207 307 7770
www.amber-light.co.uk