Why Benjamin Franklin Supports Growth-Driven Design For Your Website

Did you know Benjamin Franklin supports
growth-driven design for your website? 

Benjamin Franklin was a pretty smart guy. Among his many pithy sayings is this gem of wisdom:

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning."

We all understand the truth of this statement as far as how it relates to our personal and professional lives. You can't get anywhere in life without growth.

But how does this knowledge inform your website design strategy?

Where the Traditional Web Design Model Fails

With the traditional web design model, you invest significant resources (both time and money) into creating a new website design that lasts for a few years.

And at some point, your design begins to look stale or outdated, so you go back to the drawing board and try to create a new design that will suffice until the next new design is needed, and so on.

This traditional model works, but it has some serious shortcomings for many businesses. Some of those shortcomings are:

• Its cost in terms of both time and money.
• Its static nature.
• Its basis on current need versus potential need.
• Its inability to match the growth rate of your organization

Conversion expert Chris Goward observes in Forbes' "Never Redesign Your Website Again - Really!":

"It's one of the biggest problems I find with companies today and it's an antiquated process, the whole website redesign thing. That's the "throw the baby out with the bathwater" approach."

Considering these deficiencies, it becomes apparent that a better way is needed. This is where growth-driven design offers great potential.

The Power of Growth-Driven Design

Growth-driven design (GDD), sometimes called adaptive, iterative, or incremental design, is a process of continual evolution for your website. It is dynamic, constantly changing as your business grows and your needs change.

If traditional web design is like a piece of clothing your website dons, growth-driven web design is like living skin for your business.

With growth-driven web design, design decisions are based on real data such as your web analytics, heat maps, results of A/B testing, and so on.

In Hubspot's "Time for a Website Overhaul? A Look Into the Redesign Timelines of 6K+ Businesses," Jeffrey Vocell explains the concept further, stating: "[Growth-driven design] fundamentally starts with an initial version of your new website, and layers in testing and heatmapping.

"This allows you to quickly iterate from the feedback you are receiving. For example, let's say you're a software business looking to drive trials of your product through your homepage CTA. To get the best results, you could test CTA colors, location, size, and so on, and make a design decision based on the results."

He concludes:

"...your redesign will truly never be complete. Instead, you'll be continuously iterating based on data from visitors to ensure that you're delivering the best experience possible."

Growth-driven design focuses on improving the customer experience by using intelligence gleaned from captured metrics to discern patterns and customer behaviors. Then, adjustments and adaptations are made to support those customer behaviors through enhanced website design.

Simply put, growth-driven design means that your website is always up-to-date.

It eliminates the inefficiencies produced by having a static web design that fails, after a short time, to engage web visitors.

It keeps cobwebs from forming on your website, which is arguably your most pivotal inbound marketing tool.

Amazon.com: A Lesson in Growth-Driven Design

Does this more agile approach to customer experience work? For proof of its effectiveness, you need look no further than Amazon.com.

The largest e-commerce site by far, Amazon has had no major overhaul to its website for some time. This is largely due to the fact that Amazon makes incremental changes to its site over time.

Ever sensitive to customer behaviors, Amazon is a master at growth-driven design, making subtle changes that do not disrupt what customers know and love, but enhance the customer experience nonetheless.

Amazon makes small, subtle changes to its website over time that do not disrupt
what customers know and love, but enhance their experience nonetheless.  

The Bottom Line

Growth-driven design is an effective way to improve your website through continual adaptation and adjustment. It provides an enhanced customer experience, which naturally leads to better conversion rates and nets a positive ROI for your design efforts.

It keeps your website fresh and engaging, attracting new leads and delighting your customers throughout the entire customer journey. Are you ready to take advantage of these benefits? Download our Growth-Driven Design Playbook for more information today.