We've seen many beautiful sites with poor conversion, and many "ugly" sites with excellent conversion. The difference is rarely about aesthetics and more often about basic interaction principles that many designers have stopped thinking about.
Conversion starts with hierarchy, not colours
When a user lands on your site, you have about 3 seconds before they decide whether to stay or leave. In those 3 seconds they need to answer three questions: Where am I? What can I do here? Should I care?
Visual hierarchy is how you answer those questions without words. Size, contrast, placement and whitespace tell the user what matters. If everything is equally important, nothing is.
Seven principles we use every day
1. One primary CTA per screen
The brain can't make two equally important decisions at once — that creates friction. Each screen should have one clear primary action and at most one secondary. If you have "Buy now" and "Learn more" as equally prominent buttons, both lose.
2. Clickable = look clickable
Sounds obvious, but we see it all the time: links without underline, buttons that look like text, icons without labels. Affordance — visual hints that something is interactive — is fundamental. Hover effects and micro-interactions make it obvious what's clickable.
3. Never hide important info behind interaction
Accordions, "show more" buttons and hover-triggered menus are great for secondary info, not primary. If users MUST see the price to decide, don't hide it behind a clickable tab.
4. Form fields: ask for as little as possible
Each additional field in a form drops conversion by 5–10 %. Only ask for what you absolutely need right now. Want the company registration number? Fine — but is it necessary at first contact, or can you ask later? Each pruned field is conversion points.
5. Show status and feedback immediately
When the user does something, they need confirmation within 100 ms — otherwise they think it didn't work. Loading spinners for actions taking longer than 1 sec. Success toasts for completed actions. Never a "running" button without visual feedback.
6. Error messages that don't blame the user
"Invalid input" — what's invalid? Where? Why? Concrete, friendly error messages that tell what's wrong and how the user can fix it. Inline validation on blur, not on submit.
7. Consistency beats creativity
Every time you do something differently than the user expects, it costs. Save button in the same place, same colour for the same action, same language for the same concept. Creativity belongs in content, not in interaction conventions.
Mobile-first isn't a metaphor
Over 65 % of Norwegian visitors are on mobile. If your site was designed in Figma on a 27" screen and then "adapted for mobile", you've lost. Design mobile first, expand to desktop. Requirements: all touch targets at least 44×44 px, text at least 16 px, contrasts that work in sunlight.
Accessibility: not optional
Anti-discrimination law requires WCAG 2.1 AA for public sites, and in 2027 it will extend to all large commercial sites. Practically that means:
- Colour contrast at least 4.5:1 for text
- All functionality available via keyboard
- Alt text on all informational images
- Screen-reader-friendly markup (semantic HTML, ARIA where necessary)
- Focus indicators that are actually visible
Bonus: accessible design is almost always better design for all users, not just those with disabilities.
Data-driven design: not guesswork
If you make design decisions based on "we think", you lose. Tools like Hotjar (heatmaps + recordings), PostHog (events + funnel), and Google Analytics 4 (acquisition + behaviour) give you data on what users actually do — not what they say they do.
Concrete routine: every month, look at the top 5 pages with the highest exit rate. Identify why users leave. Iterate.
A/B testing: when and how
A/B testing is fantastic for validating big changes (new CTA text, new hero image, new form). It's overkill for small adjustments. Rule of thumb:
- Got at least 1000 conversions/month? → A/B testing works
- Less than that? → Test sequentially, measure directly
What doesn't work
- Homepage carousels. Users don't click on slide 2-5. Decades of research. Pick one message.
- Auto-play video with sound. Users lose trust immediately.
- Modal popups within 5 seconds. "Sign up for the newsletter before you've seen the page" doesn't convert.
- Hidden contact info. If you make it hard to reach you, users think you have something to hide.
Our approach
At Inovix we start all UI/UX projects with "job-to-be-done" interviews: what is the user actually trying to achieve? That becomes the foundation for everything else. Wireframes before visuals. Prototypes before code. User testing before launch.
Sounds formal, but in practice it usually adds just a week and saves months of post-launch iteration. Good design is cheaper than bad design — just not measured in project hours.
