Methods: Persuasion Architecture
Guiding users through a designed experience
Persuasive architecture refers to the intentional design of a digital or physical space to influence users’ behaviors and decisions. It uses psychological principles, visual hierarchy, and strategic content placement to guide users toward desired actions, such as making a purchase, signing up, or exploring specific features.
By understanding user motivations and barriers, persuasive architecture blends usability with subtle nudges to create seamless, engaging, and goal-oriented experiences.
Terminology
Testing different language styles and tones helps determine what works best for maximizing conversion rates. We used an A/B split test to see what language worked best on this button. ‘Buy Now‘ wins because it’s more action oriented. This change resulted in one additional order per day: With an average order value of $70 we saw a $25,550 annual revenue increase.
Before
Add To Cart
After
Buy Now
A/B split testing
On HugeDomains.com, the Product Page offers users the option to either Buy Now or finance the domain through a payment plan. If a user selects the payment plan option, they are directed to a new page where they can choose their preferred monthly payments. We conducted tests on a few different layouts for this page.
Control
Variation
Don’t make me think
Rather than simply describing what the software does, the headlines should focus on addressing the user's wants and needs. The updated headlines guide users more effectively, eliminating the need for them to overthink the task at hand. It’s a small change, but it significantly enhances the user’s journey by providing clear and intuitive direction.
Before
After
Before
After
Positive vs. negative framing
Every piece of copy should be purposeful and effective. Any wording that might make users hesitate should be tested. In this example, Control underperforms — it has lower conversions because mentioning spam creates a negative association, prompting some users to back out.
Visual and textual prompts
Persuasion architecture is the method of guiding website users towards a conversion path by injecting visual and textual cues throughout the journey. In these edge cases, I replace the empty states on a few pages within NameBright, helping people to make a decision.
