{"id":73442,"date":"2021-12-07T14:02:20","date_gmt":"2021-12-07T08:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vwo.com\/blog\/?p=73442"},"modified":"2025-04-29T18:23:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T12:53:51","slug":"how-to-apply-design-thinking-to-cro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vwo.com\/blog\/how-to-apply-design-thinking-to-cro\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Apply Design Thinking to CRO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The search for better conversion is often attributed to the marketing approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it is just as much an issue linked to user experience (UX)<\/a>. Indeed, if the good practices aiming at increasing conversions are known and numerous, there comes a stage where it is essential to know the users better. It is then a question of finely analyzing the customer\/user journey, building personae… in a nutshell: applying user-centric methods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design Thinking is both a method, a state of mind and a process. Its goal is to solve problems with a product or service in terms of user experience. It is a method that allows us to go deeper into understanding users, innovation, and design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download Free: Website Redesign Guide<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Upstream, Design Thinking makes it possible to focus the design of a product on customers and users. This process represents a powerful asset for companies because it makes it possible to optimize the project on its target and maximize the chances of obtaining conclusive results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This allows marketing teams, designers, developers, etc. to not rely on intuition but rather on human-centered research, reflection, and design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Feature<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) can be compared to the Design Thinking methods as its field is to set up a clear process to optimize the conversion rate<\/a> of a website for very specific actions. This process is similar to that of Design Thinking in that it is also based on research, hypothesis, and testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since markets, personas, and industries can be very complex at times, it’s impossible to know what improvements will optimize the conversion rate<\/a>. As with Design Thinking, intuition and opinion don’t really have a place here. Considering that it is impossible to know what will work when it comes to conversion, innovation and testing are the main points to build on.<\/p>\n\n\n

A common state of mind<\/h2>\n\n\n

The common mindset, therefore, is first of all to accept several truths:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opinion does not count: Whether in Design Thinking or in CRO, subjective opinions do not really have their place here. It is impossible to put yourself in all users’ shoes and fully understand them at first glance. You have to put your intuition aside and focus on reliable data. Of course,  innovative ideas, opinions, suggestions can be offered, but they must come systematically from observations made and must then be tested<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s impossible to know what will work: Of course, there are some basic universal rules to improve performance, like loading speed or accessibility. But when it comes to CRO, it’s impossible to know in advance what will work. This is why the tests exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no such thing as a magical layout: No placement, no layout, no color is better for conversions. No universal rule exists to maximize the chances of optimizing conversions. The best practices that can be found all over the web work on some sites, but not on all sites. We must therefore stop thinking about \u201cgood practice\u201d and instead think about \u201cprocess\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that’s the huge common point between CRO and Design Thinking – both involve a very clear process: collecting data, finding solutions, making hypotheses, testing and analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way to make the most of data, rather than relying on opinions, is to use tools like VWO Testing<\/a> and VWO Plan<\/a> to build a knowledge base of learnings from completed tests. This way, you can really ensure your tests are impactful.<\/p>\n\n\n

Understanding, empathy, and research<\/h2>\n\n\n

Whether in a process of Design Thinking or optimization of conversions, the first step is to empathize and put yourself in the shoes of the users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important here to get to know the users in question with regard to their goals, fears, motivations, desires, demographics, geographies, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quantitative and qualitative data must therefore be collected in order to have the most advanced and precise understanding of users possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the purpose of optimizing website conversions, the goal is to focus your UX research on the usability of the website and on the possible sticking points that can lower the conversion rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research step can take into account several techniques:<\/p>\n\n\n\n