A retailer asked for a category page dense enough that we pushed back twice. Too many products above the fold, too much text, not enough air. We proposed something calmer. They agreed, reluctantly, because we were the ones who had done this before.
What the numbers said
The calm version converted worse. Not marginally — we were confident, we were experienced, and we were wrong by about nineteen per cent.
Why we were wrong
Their customers were not browsing. They were re-ordering, from a list they already knew, at speed, usually on a phone, usually mid-shift. Density was not clutter. Density was the feature. Every bit of air we added was another scroll between a person and the thing they came for.
We had designed for a first-time visitor on a category page that almost nobody visits for the first time.
What we changed
We shipped their layout, and then made it fast, accessible and legible, which is the part we were actually hired for. Conversion recovered and then went past where it started.
The lesson we keep relearning
Taste is not evidence. When a client’s instinct disagrees with ours, the useful next question is not who is more experienced — it is which of us has watched their customers work.
We were confident, we were experienced, and we were wrong by about nineteen per cent.