The No Popup movement
I’m on a mission to get rid of popups on the web. It’s too important to leave website designs entirely to marketers and "growth hackers".
I launched a little side project. I give practical tips on how to increase conversion metrics. Sustainably. With design.
My contribution
Product strategy
Visual Identity
Product design
Front-end
Year
2021
Good design is good business
I want to help solo founders and engineers explain the products they are building. Most products have great tech and solve painful problems — but have a hard time explaining it.
It all started with a simple idea — what would happen if you would apply UX methods, used for digital products and e-commerce, to design a landing page? Research, copywriting, design, and analytics evaluation.
Organisations have entire teams to improve conversion. Marketing, Design, User Research, and Business Analysis. My idea is to democratise the knowledge. It’s not rocket science.
What is Conversion Design
It’s an online magazine and newsletter that has weekly practical website design tips and case studies. For solo or indie founders.
What Conversion Design is not
I don’t share dark patterns or growth hacks. We’re playing the long and honest game here – the one where you care about your visitors.
Conversion Design is not a substitute for a bad product or service. It can only go so far. Validating the idea, the market, and solving a genuine problem should be a precursor to your user growth.
Why me
I worked 5 years at Trivago and the design team had a very data-driven mindset. We tested and iterated each pixel. Then looked into data to improve the booking conversion metrics.
Tools are becoming more accessible and easy to use.
Validating the idea
There is an entire section on Indie Hackers where people ask if their message is clear or if the design is good. That’s what I did for years at Trivago.
Maybe it’s a hint that this is what people want?!
The Process
The first part and most important one is building a product people want. I started to brainstorm for Who this is, and Why it’s special. Unique selling proposition compared to the competition. Is there even a competition or it’s a new category?
I build a couple of digital products and analysed the conversion rate. So I added case studies into the mix. Real practical examples.
Wireframe
How can you make something simple when your process is convoluted?! For websites, I follow 3 steps — structure, copy, and visual design. Because it helps me. Mentally. Otherwise, I would just do it in code.
For the structure, I tried to use the most common pattern for browsing articles. Plus an emphasised hero section to subscribe. Clarity is king. Not original but I added delightful details in the visual phase. More on this below.
Visual design
I explored Layout and Typography in the wireframe phase. I decided to start with icons.
This apparently small element would set the direction and define the creative direction. And style.
Minimalistic 3D
I found something appealing with colourful UI icons. With subtle gradients. One of the most design heavy elements for Conversion Design are article covers. I decided to learn some 3D and design some simple abstract shapes. They would fit well with colourful UI elements. Also learning to make complex scenes would require a bigger commitment in learning 3D.
Luckily there's a new tool called Spline. It's a breeze to use and has a relatively shallow learning curve.
I made the graphics for the first batch of articles I intended to write about.
Front-end in Webflow
I know Webflow very well and coded visually the online magazine. It took a little bit longer than expected after all the designs were ready in Figma. It has some complex interactions and integrating 3rd party tools like MailerLite, Airtable and Zapier took some time to nail down.
Now, when a person subscribes or applies to a free redesign — I get a notification, add them to an air table database, and send them the welcome message automatically.
Marketing Plan
You can have the greatest product or offer amazing services for a dime. Or even for free. But if you build it they will not come. You need a marketing strategy to share it with the world. And the world is drowned in noise screaming for attention. It's hard.
I worked on a simple marketing plan and defined some of my main channels to promote Conversion Design. Twitter and the Indie hackers community is a big part of it.
Conclusion
Solo tech founders and engineers don't have time for design. It's not their thing. They like to build. That's why most successful startups have this co-founder duo. Tech and marketing or design. New tools allow refining your website with dead simple user research. Check analytics that are not a chore to use.
With enough knowledge about design — it can go a long way.
That's what I try to do. Also, helping people is extremely motivating.