Posted by: Ryan Greene, Senior Interactive Designer

As interactive designers we all want to create that next big thing, and with the ever-changing Web, we are bombarded with new ideas daily. While most of us strive to put out the best work possible, many times we forget that what looks great to us and our colleagues is not always what’s best for our client application, and more importantly, for conversions.

When designing for conversions we are faced with many different challenges involving client expectations, branding standards, subpar resources and time constraints. In an ideal world we would conduct thorough focus group analysis, test and measure metrics and create the “ultimate” piece. In actuality, most of the time we must simply create with conversion in mind, cross our fingers and hope that best practices will create a productive lead generating website.

Here are some basic creative conversion tips that have worked for me:

• Don’t assume that just because other big companies are doing it that it’s right. Blindly copying the standard wireframe assuming it must be the best because so many sites use it is often the wrong approach.
• Users are trained to allow their eye to scan down something that looks like search results. Setting up offers and links down the page rather than in vertical “graphic” boxes is almost always better for conversion.
• If you’re a smaller company and you have any sort of relationships with larger brands, definitely leverage them.  Promote sponsorships, partnerships, certifications, awards, etc.
• Famous-name logo graphics get more attention than any other type of graphics.
• Thinner columns are better for reading, and the fewer columns, the better. Don’t allow for more than 65 characters of type across a line/column.
• Don’t allow clicks to be wasted. Be aware of the various graphical elements that visitors might try to click on, and be sure to route them to the appropriate destination.
• Be sure to market to your demographic. Not all users are created equal.

Use these tips to help jumpstart the framework for your next demand generation design, and submit a comment below if you’ve come across other best practices in your work.