Balancing UX and CRO Necessary for Product Improvement & Impactful Results

While more businesses are embracing CRO, many are still unsure where to begin or what questions to ask.

At VWO, we’re here to share insights from leading experts that inspire both beginners and professionals alike. As veterans in this field, we believe that sharing knowledge is crucial for enriching the community and helping businesses achieve their objectives.

In the seventh installment of ‘CRO Perspectives: Insights from Industry Thought-leaders,’ we present key insights from Chester Ong, Conversion Rate Optimization Specialist at First Page, Singapore. 

Leader: Chester Ong

Role: Conversion Optimization Specialist, First Page Digital

Location: Singapore

Speaks about: User Experience (UX)  • Conversion rate optimization  •  User interface design  •  UX research  •  Data analysis

Why should you read this interview?

Chester Ong, Conversion Rate Optimization Specialist at First Page Digital Singapore, has a proven track record of enhancing website performance across various industries, including eCommerce, finance, travel, and education. He excels in analyzing data, conducting user research, and designing solutions that boost conversion rates. Chester’s unique perspective on the differences between UX and CRO, along with his emphasis on UX fundamentals, addresses many common questions and debates. This interview provides valuable tips and strategies from a seasoned expert who has immersed himself in both CRO and UX full-time, making it a must-read for anyone interested in these areas.

The inspiration behind Chester’s journey into UX and CRO

I was first introduced to the field of UX through a friend who is a product designer. After learning a bit more about the industry, I was very intrigued by the iterative process of research and experimentation to constantly improve the user experience and effectiveness of digital products. 

This led me on my journey as a UX designer and eventually as a conversion rate optimization specialist at First Page Digital, where we provide CRO consultancy and design for our clients to improve their website conversion rates. 

Over the years, I’ve learned to be more adaptable in my research approach, and to view UX/CRO through a broader perspective – not just considering user needs but also those of the client, developers, and other stakeholders. 

I think it’s important to balance the two: 1. Constantly refining the fundamentals of UX on the product to ensure a delightful user experience. 2. Playing around with experimental features such as personalization/segmentation to discover new ways to engage users. 

Key differences and overlaps between UX design and CRO

UX design optimizes products more from a user’s standpoint, influencing mostly user metrics (e.g. NPS score, task completion time, task success rate); but CRO optimizes products more from a business standpoint, influencing mostly conversion metrics (conversion rate, bounce rate, Add to Cart %, Click Rate). 

However, both disciplines overlap in success metrics & design processes and can have a positive effect on one another. Balancing both disciplines can lead to a digital product that offers an exceptional user experience while successfully fulfilling business needs.

Mastering UX fundamentals before personalization

It’s important to consider the industry and purpose of the product. 

For example, in eCommerce, sometimes, if a product’s affordability, value proposition, or stated benefits are strong enough, bad UX/usability may not always be a huge obstacle deterring the user from purchasing the product. 

However, if we consider something like a government website meant for finding career programs/events, UX/ usability definitely should be one of the fundamentals. Since the target users’ main intention on the website is to browse/find something on the website (not just to make a purchase), UX should take priority in the latter case. 

Success stories in overcoming CRO challenges

For one of our clients in the finance & travel industry, we had to synergize SEO and CRO efforts to optimize the UX of visitors landing on the website from organic search. It was a challenge as it was the first time our CRO & SEO teams had to work together on a project. We had to design workflows in which SEO, CRO, and content can complement each other. Our ideas had to be in sync and work across each part of our scope. 

Through an integrated strategy that targeted key pages on the website, we managed to achieve a significant increase in conversions for our client despite the challenges, while still meeting all SEO goals in the process. 

How VWO has enhanced your CRO approach

We found the heatmaps and A/B testing useful for enhancing a few of our clients’ websites, in terms of building hypotheses, testing, tracking conversions, as well as reporting. 

Innovative features such as the live heatmaps, which allow us to interact with the live page while the heatmaps run over the page, are very helpful & intuitive for seeing engagement across popups & dropdowns. Session recordings are also helpful for analyzing user behavior. 

We also had a great experience of using VWO to track clicks across different types of elements, which can be quite a tedious process using other tools.

Pro-tip: Track click activity with VWO’s clickmaps, which allow you to see the number of clicks each area of your website receives. Compare the click volume between different areas to gain valuable insights into user interaction.

Common UX pitfalls businesses often overlook

One thing that businesses tend to overlook on their website is important processes such as checkout journeys and form submissions. The processes often can be simplified but still have very outdated designs. If they can be optimized through research or experimentation, that will likely have a positive impact on conversion rates & submission rates. 

Information overload is also often seen on websites, which results from not using the best-suited design components to display information. This reduces the impact of important information (e.g. social proof, discounts, perks) on the user which may affect their buying decisions. 

The future of CRO: AI’s impact and changing consumer behavior

I feel that the future of CRO and UX is exciting with a lot of possibilities. Businesses should utilize intuitive features that can quickly lead users to their ideal product, such as quizzes, chatbots & interactive sections. Businesses should also invest in features such as AR/VR, blending the digital space with reality & bringing users as close to the physical retail experience as possible. 

With recent advancements in AI, I think product recommendations can reach a whole new level through AI-powered recommendations. 

Singaporean brands and their approach to experimentation

Compared to pre-COVID times, I think Singaporean brands have adopted a much more open attitude to experimentation and digitalization. The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the idea of how an online business should be run, and more Singaporean brands became willing to expand their marketing budgets to experiment with innovative features/services such as CRO, UX, and digital marketing.

By leveraging data-driven methods and showing clients their website data, we convinced clients to be more open to experimentation. Gradually, once we build trust with the clients, we can convince them to scale up experimentation efforts. 

Post-COVID, Singapore’s government has also been pushing for more digitization efforts to help local brands digitalize, so I think it’s a great time to promote the idea of experimentation in digital products. 

Essential advice for leveraging UX design and CRO

For companies that want to leverage UX design and CRO, it’s important to note that these projects will only show improvements over an extended period and will rarely see lasting improvements from a one-time fix. 

It’s also important for companies to experiment with various forms of qualitative and quantitative research methods, which is an important part of understanding their target audience. Through research, companies can understand the areas for improvement on their website & enhance their websites effectively through UX/CRO efforts. 

UX and CRO projects are about the repeated process of research, experimentation, and iteration, which drives refinement for the digital product over time. 

Conclusion

We hope this interview has cleared up any doubts, answered your questions, and provided plenty of inspiration.

If you’re ready to set the wheels of CRO in motion, consider trying VWO. With its combination of user behavior analytics and experimentation, VWO helps UX and CRO professionals enhance user experience and achieve their company’s goals. Request a demo and get a walkthrough of the VWO platform today.