However, usability – which means conversion optimisation – is not just about testing. Testing is indeed vital and is the fastest way to obtain meaningful information on visitor behaviour. First, however, test variants have to be developed.

So everything starts with the drafting of possible display variants. Drafts can be done on paper or using tools like Visio, Powerpoint or – my favourite – Pidoco (former RapidRabb.it).

During such a prototyping phase, different presentation possibilities can be tried out, although, at least at the beginning, you won’t be able to test all of them. This phase is vital as it creates a good basis for testing: especially at the start, test variants, which first need to be developed, should differ as much as possible.

Example prototype of an alternate start page for an online shop created with pidoco

The creation of such a prototype draft does not require a graphic artist, but knowledge about the website, its visitors and the products. After the elements and different forms of presentation have been planned in this step, they serve the graphic artist as a useful basis for the creation of the web design. This also limits the number of correction runs as many obstacles have been overcome beforehand and many misunderstandings have been prevented.

The realised websites are then ready for testing.

This approach is also very recommendable for the planning of multi-variant tests, as, based on a basic pattern which often has to be found first, different elements can be developed before the work-intensive graphic design process starts.

In this way, good prototyping can also save a lot of time and money in the area of conversion optimisation, allowing for a much more focused testing process.

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