Pros And Cons Of Growth Driven Design

There are many annual events we look forward to – holidays, birthdays, the Super Bowl – but this year’s website reboot surely isn’t near the top of the list … or on the list at all! Maybe it’s time to switch up your approach to website design. If you’re used to the way it’s always been done, you might not even know there are other options, like growth-driven design.

We’ve spent a lot of time examining the different methods of web design, and here we’ll share some insight on what we’ve learned.

Before moving forward with any redesign method, it’s important to understand the possible pros and cons of each process, so you can make a more informed decision on which is right for your company.

Web design is typically thought of in two ways: traditional and growth-driven design. We’ve adopted the GDD method at DuBose and consider that our area of expertise. However, that doesn’t mean that traditional website design might not work for some businesses.

Unlike growth-driven design, traditional redesigns, while lengthy and labor-intensive, also have a finite launch deadline. The self-contained time-based project limit, along with the familiarity of traditional web design, are both appealing aspects to your redesign efforts.

That said, there are several pitfalls of traditional web design that you may want to bear in mind. While self-contained, it usually takes 3-6 months to completely revamp a website. That’s a lot of time to accommodate in your overall labor plan. Plus, it demands a big upfront cost, generally in the ballpark of $25,000 - 50,000.

Additionally, unlike growth-driven design, traditional design decisions are often based on assumptions about your buyer’s journey, not hard data. Since technology and the internet continue to grow and change, and trends constantly shift, it’s entirely possible that your website will begin becoming obsolete shortly after you launch it.

Let’s take a look now at growth-driven design. There are many benefits a GDD approach can bring, making our team believe that it’s generally a better fit. Growth-driven design has become an integral part of our methodology simply because it makes sense.

With growth-driven design, from the start, you don’t have to worry about those cumbersome upfront costs and time expenses. GDD websites grow with your business, as you make consistent changes and tweaks over time. Because the process is built-in intervals, you’re better able to plan your finances and labor costs for the project.

Additionally, with growth-driven design, your website is optimized with real, hard data and analytics. Through A/B testing and trial and error, your team can determine which aspects of your content strategy are working and what areas need improvement. Analytics will show you the elements your site visitors are responding to best; you can then assess the effectiveness of your approach as you go. This way, there are no assumptions; your content marketing is based on the facts.

With growth-driven design, your launchpad website can be developed and published 50 percent faster and, on average, for 50 percent less in cost. Once your launchpad website is developed, you can use GDD to improve your web design as you go, along with further developing your corresponding pages. The best part? Because of the incremental structure, your website is never completely out of date.

Of course, on the other side of the scale, there are always cons that need to be considered before making a decision about website redesign. Some companies are used to, or simply prefer, projects with a hard deadline. Adapting to the continuous growth element of GDD may be too challenging for them. We know that growth driven design is new and that not everyone will immediately warm up to it. That’s okay. But we’re certain that as more organizations adopt this design model some of this hesitation will begin to fade.

So what do you think? Does GDD sound like a good fit for you?