The $300 Million "Continue" Button

The $300 Million "Continue" Button

Do usability analysis and implementation still holds a profitable edge for corporations ? Certainly. And it mattes a most when co can earn $300 million just by renaming the button :) !

Seems exaggerating at first glance, but this is the true facet of effective and usable design if much forethought is put into practice while designing a user experience. I am sure, not only intelligent interface design matters but also, usability analyst should have good foresight business needs and comparative analysis of design implementation. This is about registering process in a website where registering and entering valid email ID is very much needed to continue in the site.

Given a scenario of fast business trend and bursting competitive edge, I am sure this is one niche example of usability-school-of-thought:

UIE studied people actually using the site, and it turns out that the prospect of registering was enough to turn some users away; meanwhile, even return users had problems logging in because they didn't remember the email address or password they signed up with. (45% of users apparently had multiple registrations—a few had up to 10.) Granted, these represented a small portion of users. But for a retailer with $25 billion, even small portions signify huge lost profits.

So UIE redesigned the site, replacing the "register" button with "continue." They also added a message, saying that registering wasn't required to checkout, but was optional and might be helpful if you returned.

Sales went up 45%—$15 million in the first month, and $300 million in the first year.

Given UIE's success, it's a wonder how often you still see byzantine registration forms on websites. But there's a bigger lesson: That empirical research into how people actually behave matters far more than the intuitions of any designer, no matter how experienced that designer might be.

More at: The $300 Million "Continue" Button
and also at uie.com