Media & Entertainment | Product Design | B2C | UX/UI
Design ROI: 12% Revenue Growth
Client
Queensland Performing Arts Centre
Timeline
4 months
Role
UX Strategy & Optimisation Lead
Overview & Challenge​
QPAC, a Performing Arts Centre in Australia, needed to increase ticket sales through strategic product redesign and UX optimisation. The challenge was to clearly demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of design improvements by directly linking them to business metrics and revenue growth.
Key Challenges​​
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- Creating a measurable connection between design changes and business outcomes
- Identifying specific user pain points that were limiting conversion rates
- Streamlining the purchasing journey without sacrificing necessary information
- Balancing aesthetic improvements with functional enhancements
- Coordinating design changes with technical implementation capabilities
- Building stakeholder confidence in design-led initiatives
- Establishing metrics and measurement frameworks to track success
My Approach & Contribution
I led a comprehensive approach that combined data analysis, user research, and iterative design to identify and address the key barriers affecting purchase completion. My focus was on creating measurable improvements that would directly impact revenue.
What I did
1. Analysed existing analytics data to identify drop-off points in the purchase funnel
3. Created journey maps highlighting emotional and functional barriers to purchase
5. Developed A/B testing frameworks to validate design changes before full implementation
7. Created a phased implementation plan prioritising high-impact, low-effort changes
2. Conducted usability testing to understand specific pain points in the customer journey
4. Designed streamlined user flows that reduced friction at key decision points
6. Established clear metrics to measure the impact of each design improvement
I approached the project with a surgical mindset, looking for specific points of friction rather than proposing a complete redesign. This focused approach allowed us to make targeted improvements with measurable outcomes, clearly demonstrating the ROI of each design change.
Results & Impact
01
Increased ticket sales by 12% through strategic UX improvements
03
Reduced purchase abandonment rate by 34%
05
Created a framework for ongoing optimisation based on user metrics
02
Enhanced overall user satisfaction scores by 22%
04
Shortened average time to complete a purchase by 45%
06
Established design as a revenue-driving function within the organisation
The most significant achievement was establishing a clear, measurable link between specific design improvements and revenue growth. This transformed the perception of design within the organisation from a cosmetic consideration to a strategic business function with demonstrable ROI.
Key Learnings
Small, targeted fixes often beat complete redesigns. By focusing on specific pain points with clear metrics, we delivered major business results with minimal resources. This surgical approach proved far more effective than trying to change everything at once.​​
Measure before you make changes, not after. Setting up clear tracking methods from the start let us directly connect our design improvements to the 12% revenue increase, removing any guesswork about what worked.
Numbers tell you where problems are, testing shows you why they happen. The combination of analytics (where users dropped off) and usability testing (why they got stuck) gave us the complete picture needed to make smart improvements.
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Behavioural archetypes
Concept development
Based on what we learned in the explorative interviews, we created 3 different concepts for the home-page, event search and event pages. After evaluating the concepts with the Qpac team internally we decided to test two versions.
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Homepage, event search and event pages wireframes
Part 1 - Homepage optimisation​
The first round of the testing involved split testing of two alternative homepage designs, against the current homepage. We used Google Optimizer on a small proportion of the site's visits for a number of weeks. Google Optimizer is ideal for measuring the business impact of a new design as it ensures minimum risk to the business while new design concepts are being trialled.
Two new homepage concepts were tested against the original using a sample traffic volume of 25%. The test ran for 3 weeks during December 2010 with the test design version 2 clearly outperforming the original and version. Testing confirmed that one of the newly designed homepage version 2 delivered 12% more ticket purchases than the current design.
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Test results - Design version 2 performing better
Part 2 - event page optimisation​
Further to optimising the home page to drive more traffic to event pages, the next test was on the event landing page to maximise the number of people starting the purchase process. The test ran for 6 weeks during March and April 2011 and it took four iterations to reach an outcome which outperformed the original design.
Three iterations of the event page
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Winning final version