Designers, I just sent that email you’ve always wanted to send…
It all happened around 1 year ago.
I was corresponding with a company that hired me to up their UX game. If you are a designer, then you may be all too familiar with what ended up happening to my UX design ideas meant to improve their conversion rate: the company just didn’t get them.
The issue was straightforward enough: conversion rates were not where they should be for an online form. For the sake of consistency, the form looked exactly the same on both desktop and mobile.
My solution was simple — create two separate version of the form, one page with dropdowns for desktop users, and multiple pages containing one box each for mobile users. Why offer the same look and feel to two completely different types of challenges?
Conditions were not right for this apparently earth-shattering idea: I had been brought in late in the game, deadlines were looming, and there was no possibility to conduct a thorough test of my idea. My simple and logical solution was too innovative for them, they said.
Newsflash — desktop and mobile are two different worlds. Think about it for a second: what do you do at home or at work in front of your desktop, that you do differently while sitting on the train starting at your tablet, or flipping through your smartphone in line for coffee? Yes, the screens are smaller, but there are many, many more differences, which create the need for two very different UX formats, especially when you’re trying to increase your conversion rate, as this company is.
Below you can find the complete email I had sent this company last week, in which I call them on their short-sightedness and go into detail about the mobile users vs. desktop users.
I think it’s a good idea to show you how an Israeli like me handles this situation. We are a straightforward bunch, and perhaps not as politically correct as many of you. The company was Israeli too, so no-one there would have clutched their pearls in shock at reading this, either. But I believe that thanks to my Israeli chutzpah, I have managed to write the letter that all designers have always wanted to send at some stage in their career.
The email
Hi Friends,
The model I created for you for desktop users has been successfully implemented in my work with big companies such as Payoneer, and led to an increase in the conversion rate by over 30% in one of the company’s central processes.
Over there, we were dealing with the process of transferring funds after receiving a payment request — a long and arduous process, with many reasons for the user to abandon it halfway through. A similar concept was implemented by Virgin America — and it forever changed the design of airline booking websites. They were even awarded a prize at the international UX Design Awards.
My main work premise, as you may know, is that users act differently on mobile devices than they do on desktops. To make it clearer, I will sharpen the significance:
Desktop users are static.
They are sitting comfortably in one place in the office or at home, with adequate lighting and with two hands conveniently places on the keyboard and mouse. Their full attention and concentration is on the task appearing in front of them on a large screen. The amount of time they are spending on a given website is statistically known to be longer, allowing them to follow all the steps of a given process uninterrupted.
However, they may consider a complicated process as taking up too much time, leading them to decide to use their phones instead. A multitude of steps or multiple fields on the screen will encourage them to phone customer support rather than go through the complicated process.
Therefore, the focus with desktop users should be on closed elements, each of them opening separately, but all of them placed on the same screen. This process guides the user from top to bottom and creates the sense of a shorter, quicker process.
Mobile users, on the other hand, are impulsive.
They are restless, in constant motion or unstable conditions, viewing the screen in outdoor lighting, and easily distracted by any movement within their field of vision. They tend to hold their device with only one hand, and the options on the screen are only accessible insofar as their finger can reach. Increasing the distance of an element from their finger will force them to use an extra hand to fulfill the task, creating for a cumbersome process unsuitable for many situations where people use mobile devices.
Mobile users are trying to complete the task in the quickest way possible, and once they recognize a task that could take a long time, odds are that they will decide to give up. The length of the finger and the grip of the hand may hide part of the screen, and only elements of just the right size can be conveniently pressed (Research shows that mobile users are spending only 11% of their time ‘surfing the web’). The standard response time of mobile web browsers is also unsuitable considering the users’ impatience and the speeds that they are expecting.
If that weren’t enough, a call or a text may come at any given moment, diverting the process elsewhere. A user who has left the process in order to respond to a call or text most likely isn’t coming back. In this case, the focus must be placed on a process guided by the placement of the finger, and easy and convenient access to input information, all the while keeping full of control over the process. My recommendation is not to use a top-to-bottom model in this case, but rather to have separate screens, if possible.
I expect that splitting the interface into two separate versions will lead to a significant improvement in the performance. I may not have a tool reliable enough to guarantee this, but my recommendations are based on a combination of experience and reliance upon the knowledge and wisdom of others.
On a personal note, I think there is a general lack of confidence on your part towards my design. Maybe it’s because I joined your party a little late. But it’s important for me to stress that the recommendations you are receiving are based on rich experience and a vast wealth of principles, which I may never have the chance to show you in full.
The feedback I received from you about my work tends to be along the lines of “We’re just not into it”, but I must stress that you are missing the most important aspect of the user experience: you are not the users, and you are incapable of representing them.
You have chosen to work with excellent professionals. I know this about you because of the marketing people and strategists you have chosen to lead the project. Admittedly I can’t testify about myself, except for the Virgin America story which I know firsthand since I was standing beside them on the podium of that very award ceremony. Therefore, I ask that you give me enough credit to do that which I know how to do.
We can stick to your original model and forego significant conversion improvements on mobile. We can also take the mobile concept and implement it on the desktop, and forego the significant conversion improvements on desktop. We can also stop attempting to get you to think outside the box, and simply increase the size of the fields in the current forms you have, albeit in a neater way. You’re the boss.
“I want to take you far, and in the right direction, but I feel that the main obstacle in the way is yourselves.”
I feel that talking from the heart and sharing this with you, will be of better use than keeping it all bottled inside me. I hope these comments come across in a constructive manner in which they were intended and apologize in advance if they do not.
Tal
Guess what.
I don’t always go so far. This was a drastic move. But it seemed like the only way I could move the needle. And guess what. The next email and the rest of the communication from that point on were completely different. They stopped for a second to understand that they can count on the professional team they just hired and took a leap of faith. And my favorite: the dev lead moved from “No” to “let’s make this happen”.
The recommended model has been running for quite a while now, showing outstanding results. Even better than the ones I’ve seen in other cases. But this isn’t my point. My point is around the moments where no matter how good you are, the road seems to be blocked.
Not sure if this email is right for you. I’m not sure it fits all cultures and I can’t promise this will work in all cases, but sometimes we as designers have to take more aggressive steps. Having that option on our professional toolbox might help win some battles.
What do you think? Did I take it too far?
