Yesterday, one of the most iconic and frequently clicked buttons on the Internet got a redesign. The Facebook like button that 1.6 billion users click more than 6 million times per day is officially being replaced with reactions — like, wow, haha, angry, sad, love. What’s the big deal? Well, this was a terrifying decision not to be taken lightly, and the way Facebook designed Reactions - what they are calling this new capability - demonstrated the magnitude of this change.
Before taking the redesign plunge Facebook did their homework: they studied user behaviour, did user-testing, ran a test-pilot in multiple countries, and measured every interaction. The way Facebook redesigned the like button is a shining example of data-driven decision making and customer empathy in action. It’s a lesson on why testing is the real secret sauce to making smart, customer-first decisions.
We are seeing growing numbers of organisations, turning to optimisation technologies – including A/B Testing – that are enabling them to easily make decisions based on data, not hunches, with a significant positive impact on their business. From insight that supports critical thinking around customer experience and retention, this new approach to decision making saves time, mitigates risks, and can increase conversions and revenues.
We all know change is necessary. Nothing thrives by staying stagnant. Empathizing with the customer and making decisions with data instead of relying on intuition is exactly what we have seen Facebook do with their new reactions and an increasing number of the world’s most innovative companies are also using this to design their best customer experiences.
And, companies who embrace this approach are going to outperform those who don’t. They will acquire and retain users more efficiently because they can mitigate their risks while still doing fearless things. They will ultimately go farther because they are designing experiences for what their customers need.
By Marie Despringhere, UK Country Manager, Optimizely
