Test 3: The ‘Gradual Incline’ Donation Form
Late in the campaign, the donation forms on the Obama 2012 website had already been optimized past the point of low-hanging fruit. The team decided to double down on optimizing the form by investing in a more technically complex test.
Kyle Rush calls this test the “gradual incline versus the steep slope.”
The donation form was a long, multi-step process that required visitors to input lots of information. The Obama Digital team knew from usability best practices that they were losing potential donors from the long form.
But when it comes to donations, federal law requires specific information, which meant the team couldn’t just throw out unnecessary form fields. Instead, they set about making the form appear shorter by breaking it into pieces. And rather than just making the order of fields arbitrary, they went the extra step by analyzing validation errors of each field in order to put the easiest ones first.
The team then proved their hypotheses were correct through testing. Breaking the form into four smaller parts increased the donation conversion rate by more than 5%.
The team successfully identified a usability issue, implemented a solution, and proved that their solution worked through testing. To squeeze out a 5% lift on the campaign’s primary donation form was a big accomplishment for a matured testing organization and roadmap. It’s an important reminder that with a little creativity and effort, there are always conversion improvements to be found on your own site.