Case Study 04: Conversion Optimization

Storefront UX Redesigns

Role Creative Designer I
Timeline 2013 - 2015
Industry Financial Services
Scope 5+ storefront redesigns
+655%
Peak CTA Lift (AutoCircle)
+126%
Main CTA (Investments)
+42%
Quote Starts (Flood)
-36%
Page Exits (AutoCircle)

The Problem

A Fortune 100 financial services company had multiple customer-facing storefronts across auto, banking, investments, insurance, and credit card, each with underperforming conversion rates. The pages were functional but weren't designed around user intent or conversion optimization. CTAs were buried, navigation was unclear, and the user journey had unnecessary friction.

The challenge was clear: redesign these high-traffic storefronts to drive measurable conversion lifts, without disrupting existing functionality or alienating current users.

Conversion Lift by Project AutoCircle - My Car CTA +655% AutoCircle - Retrieve CTA +400% Investments - Main CTA +126% Flood Insurance - Quote Starts +42% Auto Insurance - Quote Start +40% Credit Card - Get Started CTA +23%

My Role

As Creative Designer I, I was responsible for the UX/UI design of multiple storefront experiences across the company's product lines. This included the AutoCircle storefront, Investments storefronts, Flood Insurance storefront, Auto Insurance storefront, and Credit Card storefront. Each project had specific conversion goals, some formal, some informal, and I was accountable for hitting or exceeding them.

Approach & Process

1
User Intent Analysis

Each storefront started with understanding user intent. What was the user trying to accomplish? Where were they getting stuck? This drove the information architecture and CTA placement strategy for each redesign.

2
CTA-First Design

Redesigned each page with clear, prominent calls-to-action aligned to user intent. The AutoCircle redesign made "Retrieve and Quote" and "Sell Your Car" CTAs impossible to miss, resulting in dramatic lifts.

3
Navigation Simplification

Streamlined navigation across Investments storefronts, resulting in 12-93% increases in various navigation usage. Reduced page exits on AutoCircle by 36% by eliminating confusing paths and dead ends.

4
A/B Testing & Validation

Each redesign was measured against baseline metrics. Some projects had formal goals (AutoCircle: +10% CTA) that were exceeded by wide margins. Others had no formal goals but still delivered significant lifts across Flood Insurance, Auto Insurance, and Credit Card storefronts.

Key Decisions & Trade-offs

The primary decision was whether to optimize for visual polish or conversion clarity. I chose conversion clarity, making CTAs prominent and journeys obvious, even if it meant a less "designed" aesthetic. The results validated this approach: the AutoCircle redesign exceeded its +10% CTA goal by 40-65x.

On the Flood Insurance storefront, a clearer path from landing to quote start delivered +42% Quote Starts and +66% Retrieve a Quote. Even the Credit Card storefront, a more constrained redesign, produced +16% Apply and +23% Get Started. Small, focused changes to information architecture and CTA placement consistently produced outsized results.

"Design without data just makes things pretty. Every storefront redesign was measured against conversion metrics, and the numbers told the story."

Outcome & Impact

The storefront redesigns delivered exceptional conversion lifts across multiple product lines:

AutoCircle Storefront

Investments Storefronts

Flood Insurance Storefront

Auto Insurance Storefront

Credit Card Storefront

Across all projects, the pattern was consistent: user-centered design with clear CTAs and simplified navigation produced conversion lifts that consistently exceeded expectations. The data proved that design decisions, when grounded in user research and measured against metrics, could drive significant business results.