October 6, 2015 at 17:53Creative is the main enemy of conversion
The results of recent studies unequivocally confirm that any creative principle acceptable in music, painting, and literature has an extremely negative effect on achieving goals and solving assigned tasks in the design of information systems. Only real examples, only dry figures, no hasty conclusions not supported by practice.
To begin with, as befits real researchers, let's define the terms. Personally, I, as a person deeply convinced that it is speech that forms our thinking, and that any misunderstanding of the same terms is the basis of any conflicts on earth, always try to use only official definitions from Wikipedia. But they arrived in time:
Creativity (from the English create - create, create) - the individual’s creative abilities, characterized by a willingness to accept and create fundamentally new ideas that deviate from traditional or accepted patterns of thinking and enter the giftedness structure as an independent factor ...
“Fundamentally new, deviating from traditional or accepted schemes ”- here it is, the citadel of evil. If you and I are not talking about trying to create a highly artistic masterpiece that has value in itself as the future cultural heritage of all mankind, but about increasing the selling qualities of your business, then there should not be any deviation from traditions and generally accepted schemes. As much as you and I would not like this, but any creative is much more likely to harm you than to bring accidental success.
Argument number times
The simplest and most ancient example is the basket in the upper right corner of the screen. There is nothing more ridiculous than this decision, no one ever in real life holds a basket in a supermarket above his head, tossing up all the goods bought up to the ceiling. Damn, this is just dumbness. BUT, stupidity is generally accepted, and any attempts of mine today to move the basket down so that all Internet users more realistically “stacked” rather than “threw” goods - lead to a decrease in conversion. Tested dozens of times, alas. People are used to it, people want everything “like everyone else”, people are scared of any deviations from the norm.
Perhaps, for more unique things, oriented to people who are creative, subtle, sophisticated and highly intellectual - does creativity have a little more value and benefit? Not at all.
As an expert in user experience, I will not argue for nothing, but will talk about my last experiment on the most creative and spiritually gifted people in Russia. This is a competition of design thinking, which is taking place right now at: russiandesigncup.ru
Argument number two.
I deliberately chose this particular tournament to maximize the illustration of my claim that creativity is the worst enemy of mankind. Well, also because I really liked the task, because it was simply impossible to come up with anything more divorced from life (in my opinion):
You have to agree that it was impossible to find a more ideal place for experimenting with creative together with the best minds of Russian design. For the purity of the experiment, however, I had to hide the goals and objectives of the experiment from all participants in the testing, but this only benefited the results.
And here it was here that I tried to make the most creative, just beyond the limits of traditional patterns of thinking, heartily - I invented the Theater Theater. Do not laugh, it was a scientific experiment. So, what looked like my decision to combine tasty and healthy food with dusty bookshelves:
Suppose a cafe determines the week of Dostoevsky. Individual readers, or rather even teams of several people read these books, taken only from the same cafe, choose a scene, distribute roles, rehearse. On Saturday they present their show in the same cafe or right on the street in front of it. All passers-by and casual visitors - appreciate. The best scene receives a bonus from the institution (a weekly discount of 50%). Evaluate performances can and a special jury or the owner of the cafe alone. These are the details for test operation.
Well, that is, I worked as creatively as possible on the idea of organizing KVN parties in trendy hipstas and presented the idea in video format, unlike standard static pictures with presentations. This is the purest creative 98 samples, is not it? And how did the highly esteemed jury react, which (in theory) is precisely the creative of such a level and seeks out by cities and villages. It reacted as expected:
You can’t say that people don’t understand anything in the creative? However, their actions speak for themselves:
These ratings are not for execution, not for the quality of drawing the presentation - here it is, creative in its purest form.
Is the idea so bad? Not monetizable at all? Not able to tear to shreds of competitors? Yes, this is not the point at all; it is simply completely unaccustomed to the human brain. It is truly creative, which means it subconsciously causes rejection in any normal person, for it is subconsciously from novelty that any person experiences fright, and from stable conservatism - peace and satisfaction. Ordinary psychology.
Yes, I know what you're thinking: "Yes, you have a bomb, because the winners offered an even more creative and unconventional moves !!!" .
Well, here you have links to those works that won the creative contest. Here, in the eyes of an inexperienced designer, it may seem that the most standard and even standardized approaches to thinking are collected. But the creative here is precisely understood at the expert level. that any template is exactly what any person loves most. I will not give other people's presentations here, so as not to infringe copyright, please follow the links:
1st place: russiandesigncup.ru/solution/800
List of recommendations for reading on an inclined iPhone. I saw this in the form of incoming development orders for web studios and freelancers exactly a million times. And I’ll see the same amount. And that's where coolness is - everyone already has such a solution in their head, which means that any character is ready for instant interaction with such an application.
2nd place: russiandesigncup.ru/solution/824
Bulletin board. An ordinary wooden board with papers glued on it is an invention that, for a second, is more than two thousand years old. The designer creatively worked with eternal, never out of fashion patterns of behavior. That is, all bus stops and garages are automatically from today the Temples of Creativity and Examples of design thinking, understand?
3rd place:russiandesigncup.ru/solution/844
Kraft book covers (dangerous, too creative word). Craft, Kolyan, craft! Well, yes, and of course the qr code, without this a creative approach to the task would be incomplete. If the best interface is an invisible interface, then the best creative is a complete lack of creativity.
Okay, I’ll stop tormenting you with the pleasure of the best design decisions of 2015. Just feel the internal level of rejection that is now causing you to read my solution to the problem. It’s your inner conservative who has declared a creative war to destroy:
How would all this look on the screens? As simple as possible, in the form of ordinary, not distracting from reading the social network of notifications.
Summarize
So what did this social experiment teach us? There is nothing worse in design and in business than going beyond established boundaries and standards, and any creative approach will be condemned by the most creative people from the most creative professions. Ads on the fence, covers, search engines, social media searches and a list of recommendations - this is the track that will ideally lead any product to increase conversions and likes.
That is why, if you are looking for a new design approach for your outdated website to noticeably improve sales, the first thing you should do is change the packaging of the product, paste the announcements on the posts everywhere and be sure to launch targeted advertising in VKontakte on the topic: “ You might like this book and generally subscribe to the latest. ”
All that your brain generates beyond these boundaries is going beyond the red flags, which no potential client will understand or accept.
Related links
How people make decisions and assess the situation
Video presentation Theateroke
Destroy the extra fat of creativity, interactivity
To begin with, as befits real researchers, let's define the terms. Personally, I, as a person deeply convinced that it is speech that forms our thinking, and that any misunderstanding of the same terms is the basis of any conflicts on earth, always try to use only official definitions from Wikipedia. But they arrived in time:
Creativity (from the English create - create, create) - the individual’s creative abilities, characterized by a willingness to accept and create fundamentally new ideas that deviate from traditional or accepted patterns of thinking and enter the giftedness structure as an independent factor ...
“Fundamentally new, deviating from traditional or accepted schemes ”- here it is, the citadel of evil. If you and I are not talking about trying to create a highly artistic masterpiece that has value in itself as the future cultural heritage of all mankind, but about increasing the selling qualities of your business, then there should not be any deviation from traditions and generally accepted schemes. As much as you and I would not like this, but any creative is much more likely to harm you than to bring accidental success.
Argument number times
The simplest and most ancient example is the basket in the upper right corner of the screen. There is nothing more ridiculous than this decision, no one ever in real life holds a basket in a supermarket above his head, tossing up all the goods bought up to the ceiling. Damn, this is just dumbness. BUT, stupidity is generally accepted, and any attempts of mine today to move the basket down so that all Internet users more realistically “stacked” rather than “threw” goods - lead to a decrease in conversion. Tested dozens of times, alas. People are used to it, people want everything “like everyone else”, people are scared of any deviations from the norm.
Perhaps, for more unique things, oriented to people who are creative, subtle, sophisticated and highly intellectual - does creativity have a little more value and benefit? Not at all.
As an expert in user experience, I will not argue for nothing, but will talk about my last experiment on the most creative and spiritually gifted people in Russia. This is a competition of design thinking, which is taking place right now at: russiandesigncup.ru
Argument number two.
I deliberately chose this particular tournament to maximize the illustration of my claim that creativity is the worst enemy of mankind. Well, also because I really liked the task, because it was simply impossible to come up with anything more divorced from life (in my opinion):
You have to agree that it was impossible to find a more ideal place for experimenting with creative together with the best minds of Russian design. For the purity of the experiment, however, I had to hide the goals and objectives of the experiment from all participants in the testing, but this only benefited the results.
And here it was here that I tried to make the most creative, just beyond the limits of traditional patterns of thinking, heartily - I invented the Theater Theater. Do not laugh, it was a scientific experiment. So, what looked like my decision to combine tasty and healthy food with dusty bookshelves:
Suppose a cafe determines the week of Dostoevsky. Individual readers, or rather even teams of several people read these books, taken only from the same cafe, choose a scene, distribute roles, rehearse. On Saturday they present their show in the same cafe or right on the street in front of it. All passers-by and casual visitors - appreciate. The best scene receives a bonus from the institution (a weekly discount of 50%). Evaluate performances can and a special jury or the owner of the cafe alone. These are the details for test operation.
Well, that is, I worked as creatively as possible on the idea of organizing KVN parties in trendy hipstas and presented the idea in video format, unlike standard static pictures with presentations. This is the purest creative 98 samples, is not it? And how did the highly esteemed jury react, which (in theory) is precisely the creative of such a level and seeks out by cities and villages. It reacted as expected:
You can’t say that people don’t understand anything in the creative? However, their actions speak for themselves:
These ratings are not for execution, not for the quality of drawing the presentation - here it is, creative in its purest form.
Is the idea so bad? Not monetizable at all? Not able to tear to shreds of competitors? Yes, this is not the point at all; it is simply completely unaccustomed to the human brain. It is truly creative, which means it subconsciously causes rejection in any normal person, for it is subconsciously from novelty that any person experiences fright, and from stable conservatism - peace and satisfaction. Ordinary psychology.
Yes, I know what you're thinking: "Yes, you have a bomb, because the winners offered an even more creative and unconventional moves !!!" .
Well, here you have links to those works that won the creative contest. Here, in the eyes of an inexperienced designer, it may seem that the most standard and even standardized approaches to thinking are collected. But the creative here is precisely understood at the expert level. that any template is exactly what any person loves most. I will not give other people's presentations here, so as not to infringe copyright, please follow the links:
1st place: russiandesigncup.ru/solution/800
List of recommendations for reading on an inclined iPhone. I saw this in the form of incoming development orders for web studios and freelancers exactly a million times. And I’ll see the same amount. And that's where coolness is - everyone already has such a solution in their head, which means that any character is ready for instant interaction with such an application.
2nd place: russiandesigncup.ru/solution/824
Bulletin board. An ordinary wooden board with papers glued on it is an invention that, for a second, is more than two thousand years old. The designer creatively worked with eternal, never out of fashion patterns of behavior. That is, all bus stops and garages are automatically from today the Temples of Creativity and Examples of design thinking, understand?
3rd place:russiandesigncup.ru/solution/844
Kraft book covers (dangerous, too creative word). Craft, Kolyan, craft! Well, yes, and of course the qr code, without this a creative approach to the task would be incomplete. If the best interface is an invisible interface, then the best creative is a complete lack of creativity.
Okay, I’ll stop tormenting you with the pleasure of the best design decisions of 2015. Just feel the internal level of rejection that is now causing you to read my solution to the problem. It’s your inner conservative who has declared a creative war to destroy:
How would all this look on the screens? As simple as possible, in the form of ordinary, not distracting from reading the social network of notifications.
Summarize
So what did this social experiment teach us? There is nothing worse in design and in business than going beyond established boundaries and standards, and any creative approach will be condemned by the most creative people from the most creative professions. Ads on the fence, covers, search engines, social media searches and a list of recommendations - this is the track that will ideally lead any product to increase conversions and likes.
That is why, if you are looking for a new design approach for your outdated website to noticeably improve sales, the first thing you should do is change the packaging of the product, paste the announcements on the posts everywhere and be sure to launch targeted advertising in VKontakte on the topic: “ You might like this book and generally subscribe to the latest. ”
All that your brain generates beyond these boundaries is going beyond the red flags, which no potential client will understand or accept.
Related links
How people make decisions and assess the situation
Video presentation Theateroke
Destroy the extra fat of creativity, interactivity