I was having lunch with a colleague yesterday. We spoke about our respective families, changes at a previous employer where we both worked, and A/B Testing. A/B testing is the practice of (relating to website page performance) offering up varying samples against a control to evaluate user behavior. By altering language, action position, action size you can measure performance of a specific result as long as you have a significant user sample size. Let me tell you, we are a couple of “wild and crazy guys…”

My colleague made a comment in passing that I myself have heard many times before. In my earlier years, I may have actually made the comment to others. This comment concerns me. Until I was exposed to things like usability testing, client surveys, A/B testing I too was ignorant to the malicious arrogance that of a designer (wait for it). The obtuse belief that “I” knew what was best for the audience I was designing for (wait for it). The blind ambition to create something so spectacular that no other designer could possibly top. Wait, did I just say no other “designer”? Aren’t we talking about designing for users? So what was the comment I took so long to utter? When reviewing a working sample, my colleague had a question/issue/concern with something and the designer/creative/art director said these words “…you’re not creative…”.

“…you’re not creative…” those 3 words (ok, correct me if I’m wrong, but would that be considered 2 words and a contraction) tell me a multitude of things about you both personally and professionally. Now don’t get me wrong, there are people that still use blinking-animated-text because they think it’s “cool”, but honestly if their user-base wants it and it helps sell little green aliens figurines then great. My point is, good design functions as both a visual solution and appeals to an audience enough to read, purchase, tell others, etc.

You have to start somewhere. Why not start with a solid design that has input from MANY individuals, speaks to the gobs of data you have gathered prior to even staring creative (you did gather gobs of data prior to starting creative, didn’t you), and takes into consideration the audience as a whole. Create. Launch. Track. Test. Re-launch. Test again.

This is the web. We’re not printing War & Peace here and we miss a typo and have to re-run the whole book. Evolve your site to better serve your audience. How?

• Poll them – Ask them questions and use the data to see if a trend occurs. “I can’t find the Buy Now button” might clue you into something
• Track them – Notice that you have a 95% drop off rate 2 steps into your process prior to purchase? Oh no, maybe we have too many steps? Maybe the action isn’t compelling enough? Maybe…
• Test SOMETHING – A/B test, live sample test, marketing test, etc. Just make sure you track the number correctly to validate any findings either positive or negative.
• Implement Findings – Once you have all the data, use it. Better your site. Your users will thank you by reading more, spending more, and telling more people about you.

I like creatives. Good group of people. Now, get me in with a group of usability people and whoa, watch out. NOW, get me in with a group of usability folks AND and group of creatives and have us all working as a team… isn’t that what we’re suppose to be doing in the first place?