Book Review: Design for Conversions by Brian Casel

I am currently working on some site redesigns and as usual, I started to take a look around for some inspiration. It was then that I came across Design for Conversions, by Brian Casel.

Now this is not your typical web design book, what caught my eye is that Brian is specifically talking about design for a particular purpose, in this case conversions. In reality, we all want better conversions for our sites, don’t we? However not all design books and resources take that into consideration. So I thought I’d give this book a try, since coincidentally I was also looking into ways that I could increase the conversion rate on the site of my RSS importer plugin.

This has been simply the best web design book I’ve read in the last two years, and I love it because it combines both design and marketing. Although Brian explores design techniques and best practices with regards to topics like colour, typography and spacing, he also explains how to actually build designs that convert well. He does this mostly be using real-life examples, sites he either built himself or that are well-known, such as Freshbooks and HelpScout.

Design for Conversions is more than just a book however. There are three price points ($29 – $149), starting with the book on its own delivered as a PDF, mobi or epub, followed by the addition of case study videos and sample templates, and finishing off with the inclusion of having your site reviewed by Brian himself.

The case study videos are very valuable if you’re aspiring to become a web designer yourself, as you get to hear about the design processes of some real top designers like Rafal Tomal and Jason Schuller.

The Balsamiq templates are of course a great way to start planning your next site redesign, if you use that app. I found them really helpful for starting out with a new site plan. If you don’t use Balsamiq, there’s also the PDF version you can download, but of course that’s very limited in usefulness.

Needless to say, the full package point is a great choice for entrepreneurs who want to improve their conversions and their site’s design at the same time, at that price and including 30 minutes of Brian’s time, I think it’s great value.

Get Design for Conversions

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