In the world of business the Pareto principle is the rule that says 80% of profits come from 20% of customers or clients.
Using the Pareto principle in web design involves the same 80/20 breakdown. It means that your profits can be maximized simply by placing the focus on the 20% of processes, activities or products that are generating 80% of the results that you want from your website.
As a result of using the Pareto principle in web design, or for when you are designing an app, you will have a website with greatly enhanced functionality, better user experience and more powerful content. All this can be achieved with less effort than you might think.
The idea might seem too good to be true, but the reality is that if you want a better conversion rate, what your website needs is an 80/20 optimization plan. Whether your goal is to generate more sales, or if it is your intention to gain more registered members, subscribers or email opt-ins, you will get better results from your website.
Using the Pareto principle in web design means that you end up having a much leaner site. It will have been reduced down to feature the 20% that is most rewarding, and which produces 80% of whatever it is you want to achieve. With a less complex web design you will achieve a much better conversion rate.
Some upfront work will of course need to be carried out when you start optimizing your website with the Pareto principle in mind, but there will be less work involved in maintaining your website once the new design is up and running.
How you can take advantage of it
You will find that tracking and monitoring user interaction through session cookies, form submissions and web analytics is a useful way to find out which 20% of your website features and elements result in 80% of actions or sales. Close analysis of the statistics from your website will also show you the most profitable areas of functionality.
Usability studies might also be necessary, to analyze some of the activities that are less easy to track. These studies will require some observation of how your users are interacting with the interface.
How to apply it
The first step you need to take is to identify what your main purpose is in having a website. Your objective could be to promote a brand, to sell products or to get users to sign up for something. You need to list each element of the website that is directly contributing to reaching this objective. Also make a note of which elements are not helping very much in website conversions.
Keep refining your content by removing those elements that are not really necessary. The elements and pages that remain are the ones which are mostly responsible for supporting the primary objective of your website.
To help you with your application of the Pareto principle in web design, you should consider the processes of simplification, optimization, prioritization and analysis.
Use analytics to identify the most important and most frequently used elements on your website. Google Website Optimizer and Analytics will do this for you.
Prioritize the key aspects that are responsible for generating the biggest percentage of results.
Optimize whatever elements you have identified as being responsible.
Simplify the user experience of your website without losing any quality of design.
Its importance
All the advantages of applying the Pareto principle in web design will soon become obvious when you have given your website a makeover. User experience will be better, because the site will be simpler and will have fewer distractions. Page response times will be faster, and what is left on your website will be of better quality.
A bigger percentage of your visitors will arrive at the call-to-action in a shorter time and will have less to do to get there. This means that you will quickly see an increase in your conversion rate.
You really do need to apply the 80/20 principle if you want to improve the conversion rate of your website. You should be able to see how it will be to your own advantage to remove 80% of elements that are not working and to feature the 20%, which are bringing in the biggest percentage of what your website is meant to achieve.
If you want more people to start buying your product, subscribing, opting-in or registering for your service, then you should optimize your website by applying the 80/20 rule to increase its effectiveness. The sooner you do this, the quicker you will be on your way to achieving greater success from a more efficient website.
Ending thoughts
Before you go rushing into action with the Pareto principle in your web design, however, there is one thing that you must keep in mind. That is not to overdo the 80/20 rule. If you completely ignore 80% of what is on your website, this could have an adverse impact on user experience. Sometimes the details are important and if you remove too much your visitors may not have enough access to the sort of information that matters to them.
While you should focus on what is included in the 20% of your website that is most profitable, some experimentation will be necessary before you reach a final decision about your website design. By trying out a few different experiments and monitoring the results, you will be able to create a more streamlined website that still contains what matters to your visitors.
When you use the Pareto principle in your web design, all you are losing are the elements that are slowing down user interaction with your interface. What you gain, is a website that performs better and has much greater potential for achieving its primary function and your ultimate goal.
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