A business website has no room for error. A small design flaw could render all your efforts useless as 94% of people can't trust a poorly designed website.
Before designing your business website, you have to choose between a Traditional Web Design (TWD) and a Growth-Driven Design (GDD). Although each can help you achieve your company's objectives, they have different approaches, tactics, and requirements and affect operations and cash flow differently.
This article will look into what each entails and its advantages and disadvantages to help you select the ideal one for your company's needs.
What is Traditional Web Design?
TWD approach involves defining your strategy and marketing and site goals before designing the website. The launched website is usually complete in every way and is redesigned every few years.
What Is Growth-Driven Web Design?
The GDD approach involves creating a website in phases. First, a launchpad version is created and launched, then continuously improved based on how visitors interact with it and its objectives.
How Is Growth-Driven Design and Traditional Web Design Related?
Both TWD and GDD are options for creating a website. TWD, as the name suggests, came first. Due to constantly changing trends and customer preferences, GDD was developed. Although you can use either to create your website, GDD is better equipped to keep up with trends and customer preference changes.
How Is Growth-Driven Design Different From Traditional Web Design?
GDD is different from TWD in the following ways:
- TWD depends on educated guesses to determine the audience's behavior and preferences, while GDD depends on data to adapt it to the target audience's needs.
- GDD takes a shorter time to launch compared to TWD.
- A Traditionally designed website is usually outdated after a short while, but a Growth-Driven website is always updated.
- You take a huge risk with TWD but a smaller risk with GDD.
- A GDD spreads out development costs over time while TWD costs are upfront.
Advantages
Advantages of Growth-Driven Design
- It ensures consistency in traffic and conversion rate by changing the design to align with what actual users want and need.
- You can test different ideas using a launchpad, which is cheaper than a full-fledged website under TWD.
- The time from conception to launch is shorter for a GDD, so you can start converting customers immediately.
- It reduces the risk of failure as every inclusion in the website is based on what site visitors like.
- It ensures efficiency as all the features in the website work toward a common goal.
- It is flexible in terms of trends and technology.
Advantages of Traditional Web Design
- The initial investment is a one-time expense.
- You have the opportunity to research and fully understand your target audience before you develop your website.
- The costs are easy to estimate, so it is easier to budget.
Disadvantages
Disadvantages of Growth-Driven Design
- The continuous improvement costs required by GDD make it a recurrent expense. Your website isn't "done" when it's launched.
- Brands that are used to a hard deadline may find it hard to adapt to the continuous nature of GDD.
Disadvantages of Traditional Web Design
- You need to reinvest time and money into redesigning the website every few years.
- Finding all the bugs and issues in a fully designed website can be challenging if the proper tools aren't in place.
- It isn't easy to select what's ideal for your website as you are not sure what your site visitors will like.
- Because it takes longer, you will miss out on potential revenue during the long development period.
- You cannot be sure what will work vs. what won't.
- It has larger upfront costs.
Tactics
As aforementioned, each method has its tactics and procedures. They are broken down below.
Growth-Driven Design tactics
GDD is divided into two main phases: launchpad and continuous improvement. The launchpad phase identifies all the necessary information about your business, strategy, and wish list, then builds your initial launchpad, which is typically launched within three months. Your wish list could include such things as improving user experience, boosting conversions, and building marketing assets, among others.
In the continuous improvement phase, each feature and inclusion in the launchpad is checked and maintained, improved, or eliminated based on how it performs. It is based on data from the visitors to your site and is cyclical; once it starts, it never stops.
Traditional Web Design Tactics
The first step in TWD is to understand your target audience. Understanding their needs, goals, and motivations ensures you will build a website that resonates well with them.
The project then moves to the design and build stages, which could take several months. On completion, the website is tested before being launched. It is updated once every few years.
How to Choose the Best Strategy for Your Business
Both TWD and GDD can be effective when implemented correctly. But, to know which one is the best fit for your business, you should consider the following factors.
- How well do you understand your target audience?
- How soon do you need a live website to start converting?
- Whether you already have an existing website or not.
- How much money do you have budgeted for your website?
- Which approach aligns best with your business goals?
- What prior web design experience do you have? What worked for you before? What will work for you now?
When to Use Growth-Driven Design
A GDD is perfect for your business if:
- You need to spread out the costs over time.
- You have an ineffective website, and you need to get another one up fast.
- You are trying to scale and want a faster ROI from your website.
When to Use Traditional Web Design
- You are a new business or have a tight budget for web design.
- You already have a working website, so you are in no hurry to develop another.
- You have accurate insight into what features work on your website and which don't.
- You know exactly what your site visitors want and need to have a good experience with your company and website online.
Key takeaways
Although each type of design can help you achieve your company goals, it is apparent from the above that a Traditional Web Design pales compared to a Growth-Driven Design. It is faster, less risky, and allows companies to adapt to changing times without needing a full website redesign. The more your business and customers grow, the more your website changes.
We can help you design a Growth-Driven Design to increase conversion and help your company achieve its objectives.
