You might not realise it, but traditional website design is broken. Businesses today need a smarter way of driving optimal results with their website, but they also need to reduce the risk and limitations that come with designing or redesigning a new website. It might seem like there is no solution, but there is: enter, growth-driven design.
You should invest in growth-driven design to improve the optimisation of your website. It is a more progressive approach to the design and development of websites where the risks of traditional website design are minimised. The website design team focuses on continuous learning and improvement rather than simply launching a website and hoping to get it right in one attempt.
If this is becoming a little confusing, below we take a deeper dive into what growth-driven design is.
Growth-Driven Design Defined
Rather than confuse you with jargon, we will define growth-driven design in simple terms. Growth-driven design is an approach to website design that takes a systematic approach, meaning that the designers and marketers use intentional increments to design and develop your website.
There will be regular adaptations of your website made based on customer data, rather than working for months to make every element perfect before leaving your site to sit statically online before changes are made years later. You will not be left wondering why your brand new website isn’t gaining the traction or driving the leads it should be.
Two important tenets of growth-driven design are continuous learning and improvement. This is because it is an iterative process, using shorter time-frames or “sprints” to reach results. Informed performance improvements are made on a highly regular basis based on the data gathered from user behaviour. In a nutshell, growth-driven design is an ongoing website design and development process that bases decisions on data and customer insights.
What Are The Phases?
Now that you understand growth-driven design a little more, you can dive into the different phases behind it. There are usually three different phases that website designers and developers will use for growth-driven website design, as we outline below.
Phase One: Strategy
It is safe to say that any website design or development starts with a strategy, and growth-driven design is no exception. In this phase, the goal is to create a strong foundation for the design to be built off of. If you have an existing website, this is the phase where a thorough audit will be performed so that your growth-driven design agency can note what is working, what is not working, and where improvements can be made. During the strategy phase, you will need to set specific and measurable goals, develop customer personas based on customer data, perform UX research, and create a wishlist for your website.
Phase Two: Launch Pad Website
After the strategy has been put together, your design agency will move on to building and deploying a “Launch Pad” website. This is a fully functional website that looks and performs better than what you currently have. It is by no means the final product, but it is a solid foundation to start off with. It will mostly be used to gather user data in order to make further improvements to your website and business plan. You will need to analyse what you are offering consumers and compare it to what they are really looking for. If there is a gap between the two, you can easily make the necessary amendments.
Phase Three: Continuous Improvement
Once your Launch pad website is…well…launched, you will move onto the third (but never final) phase. Continuous improvement is never final or finished, and your website will never be truly completed when working with a growth-driven design agency (but that is a good thing!). In this phase, you will constantly be collecting customer data from your website in order to maintain momentum and keep improving user experience. The steps you will follow in this phase include plan, build, learn, and transfer.
What Are The Growth-Driven Design Values?
There are three definitive values that growth-driven design agencies hold dear that help them to create websites that grow with your company. These values are outlined below.
- Minimise Risks: The core goal of growth-driven design is to minimise the risks that often take place with traditional website design. This is because it takes a systematic approach to design rather than trying to get everything done at once. With a shorter timeline to the launch, there is less room for any errors to be made.
- Continual Learning: Growth-driven design agencies are obsessed with continuously learning, testing, researching, and growing the websites they have developed. They will be able to implement data-driven changes to your website that will not only improve user experience but also enables the designers to make more improvements and continue testing.
- Transfer To Marketing Teams: The knowledge and data that is collected from this continuous learning can and should be transferred to marketing teams. They can use this information to create content and social media marketing strategies that will align with your website goals. This will help you to have a more rounded approach to customer experience.
Start Your Growth-Driven Design Journey
While you will not have many issues with a traditionally-designed website, you will find that a growth-driven design is more optimal and will help to ensure that your website grows with your business. Following the phases and keeping the values in mind is a sure-fire way to grow your website steadily and keep it in line with your business goals.
If you would like a professional website designed and developed for your business, speak to NetMechanic today to find out what we can offer you.