Stop Designing for Approval and Start Designing for Conversion

You might get applause in the meeting, but that doesn’t mean the design will perform in the wild.

There’s a silent killer lurking in a lot of marketing departments—and its name is Approval. Designing for internal consensus instead of customer action is one of the fastest ways to sabotage a perfectly good strategy. You might get applause in the meeting, but that doesn’t mean the design will perform in the wild.

It’s the difference between making a dish that impresses your dinner guests versus one that fills a stadium. Design that converts isn’t always pretty to your CEO, your intern, or your client’s cousin with an art degree. It’s nice to your customers. It’s effective. It’s strategic. It works.

Let’s unpack why “approval-first” design kills conversions—and how to break the habit for good. Because bureaucratic approval processes work against your goals, not for them.

The Real Goal of Design: Behavior, Not Opinions on Aesthetic

When you’re designing for approval only, you’re optimizing for subjective reactions. You’re probably thinking:

• Does this look sleek?
• Does this align with our brand guidelines?
• Does everyone in the room like it?

But when you design for conversion, you’re optimizing for behavior. You’re considering the above and even more:

• Will this button even be clicked?
• Will this layout keep users engaged? Is this flow from each section effective
• Will this headline reduce bounce rates by communicating clearly?
• What data can I use to reduce cognitive overload here?
  

The problem is, internal feedback rarely mimics customer behavior. Internal reviewers look at a design for 30 seconds in a vacuum, on an online meeting or in person. Real users scroll fast, multitask, and don’t give you the benefit of the doubt. They have different optimized user flows, from education, conversion, nurturing and more. The job of design isn’t to get compliments—it’s to guide decisions.

Your clients will actually thank you for guiding them towards their goals, instead of their preferences. This is how you steer the ship.

How Approval-First Design Happens

Let’s call it what it is: a defense mechanism. We want buy-in. We want to skip rejection. We want to avoid being wrong. So we crowdsource design decisions to protect ourselves from risk. But in doing so, we dilute the strategy.

Here’s what typically happens:

1. The designer creates a conversion-minded layout.
   
2. Stakeholders chime in with preferences (“Can we try a script font?” or “My wife says the blue is too cold.” and, “I saw an unrelated website do x thing, can you apply that? Why isn’t that there?”)
   
3. Design gets Frankensteined to death. You lose control of the ship by going with their every whim.
   
4. The final version looks ‘polished’—but has no bite.
   
5. You resent your clients and team.
   

This isn’t a collaboration. This is fear-based editing. And it leaves you with a potentially pretty aesthetic that doesn’t perform.

Great Design Isn’t Always Comfortable

High-performing design often feels too bold, too simple, too different. That’s because it’s built for attention, not aesthetics. It dares to make the user do something. This can make clients feel uncomfortable at first.

You might hear:

• “It feels too aggressive.”
  
• “There’s too much white space.”
  
• “That call to action is too prominent.”
  
• “I want to be more subtle, high end.”
  

But guess what? Those are usually signs you’re onto something. Because the users don’t know your client like the back of their hand as you do, so the more you can communicate the little niches they don’t, the higher likelihood they convert.

Dropbox’s homepage for years was just a headline, a CTA, and an illustration. No fluff. People hated it—until they saw how well it worked. My designer brain tells me I want to change it, but if it’s bringing in tons of users against 100s of other designs they tested, who am I to say my preferences should reign over the users.

What Conversion-Focused Design Looks Like

Let’s ground this in some real-world, research-backed tactics:

1. Clear Visual Hierarchy
   People scan. You have 8 seconds to prove you’re relevant. Headlines should command attention. CTAs should be loud and proud. Supporting text should guide—not overwhelm. Too often people put more fluff, superfluous text because it makes them feel cool, but it doesn’t convert.
   
2. One Primary Goal Per Page
   Every page should have a single action you want users to take. A study from EyeQuant showed that simplifying visual structure increased attention by 230%. And if you have a secondary option, design it like so. Make it different than the primary conversion buttons.
   
3. Proof Right Below the Fold
   Users decide in seconds whether to trust you. Putting reviews or testimonials front and center can boost conversions significantly.  According to Nielsen Norman Group, users look for external validation within the first 10 seconds of landing on your site-10 seconds!
   
4. Short Forms, Fewer Steps
   Fewer fields = more completions. Expedia famously increased annual profit by $12 million just by removing one field from their booking form. At brandch we like to push a single button that takes to a UX optimized type form, keeps it intuitive and easy.
   
5. A/B Testing Beats Consensus
   Instead of asking for opinions, run a damn test! Show your team the data. You’ll not only get better results—you’ll shift the culture from “what do we like?” to “what works?”
   

How to Break the Approval Cycle

Here’s how to start designing like a strategist, not a politician:

• Change the Brief
  Ask “What action are we driving?” instead of “What do you want it to look like?”. You have to take control front and center by drawing boundaries around the purpose of a design.
  
• Have  Supporting Data
  Back up your design choices with user behavior, heatmaps, scroll maps, benchmarks, a ‘why’ in every section is ready in your cards. Opinion loses power when data and evidence enters the room.
  
• Build Trust with Stakeholders
  When you can explain why you’re breaking design conventions (to drive conversions), people start to lean in instead of push back.  We make every designer do a one to two page thesis on why the page works before they ever present it to the client. This practice always auto corrects any personal decision making to user focused.
  
• Educate on Customer Psychology
  Frame design not as aesthetics, but as user guidance. Share insights on cognitive load, eye-tracking patterns, copy that converts vs. is fluff, value focused design and decision-making behavior. Make it about steering the client in the direction they need to go to accomplish their goals.
  

Conversion Is the Loudest Applause

Design that converts doesn’t need 10 rounds of internal feedback. It needs testing, iteration, and guts. Designing for approval will get you polite nods and low conversion rates. Designing for action? That’s what drives real growth.

In the end, customers don’t care if the CEO likes your button. They care if it helps them solve their problem. That’s what we’re here to build.