Hey — It’s Nico.

This is another edition of Failory’s Behind Tactics 🧠, the newsletter in which I analyze the different strategies that startups are using to get ahead in their markets.

This week, I analyzed a strategy in the intersection of growth and UX design. I went over:

• Why Stripe, Linear and Amie spend thousands of hours designing perfect homepages.

• How a homepage can help brand a company as an innovative and groundbreaking business.

• How a homepage re-design can get buzz on social media and PR for a company.

• And lots of examples of incredible homepage designs.

Let’s delve into it.

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The Strategy

Anyone can understand the value of having a good-looking homepage. After all, it is the first contact most customers will have with your business, so you better make a good first impression. 

Nevertheless, when designing a homepage, not every business is willing to invest the same amount of time and resources. In fact, most companies create a homepage once and only make minor adjustments over time.

But then there are companies like Stripe that have made a religion out of tweaking, improving, and completely re-designing their homepage over the years.

These companies spend tons of resources and countless hours perfecting their homepage, surpassing what many consider reasonable.

Today I’ll investigate how these companies leverage their homepages to showcase themselves as innovative and pioneering entities. I'll also analyze how their designs serve as powerful instruments for generating excitement about the company and attracting new customers.

Stripe

Since its inception in 2010, Stripe has consistently excelled in site design and user experience. Over the years, the company has continually allocated significant resources to refine its homepage, ensuring it stands out as unique and innovative.

Let's take a glance at what the Stripe site looked like in 2011:

And here's the latest iteration after their 2020 redesign:

For a company primarily concerned with processing payments, Stripe places a lot of importance on the design of their site and the improvement of their user experience in general. 

They have a big WPP (Web Presence and Platform) team that constantly tries to innovate and improve Stripe’s UX. CEO and Founder Patrick Collison is also insanely invested in the design process. This creates a culture that sees design not as an afterthought but as a core element of the product and the business.

But what do they get out of this?

For starters, it positions itself as a company that cares about building great user experiences. This has been Stripe's focus since the beginning. When most other payment gateways were a pain to implement, Stripe focused on creating a simple solution that would make the developers' job as easy as possible. They built excellent documentation and ensured that working with Stripe was a pleasurable experience. 

The straightforward, easy-to-use, crisp design of the homepage serves to convey this idea from the first time.

Additionally, this focus on design can help Stripe stand out from competitors. Just look at a comparison between Stripe’s site and Braintree’s site:

It is easy to see which startup has invested more in designing their homepage.

Finally, there is another big benefit of having an amazing-looking homepage that I think often gets overlooked. A unique design can get people talking about you. It is very common for Stripe’s redesigns to get a lot of people talking on social media:

This also happens when they launch small updates or easter eggs:

This means that re-designing your homepage can potentially get you new customers or even spread the word that you are a company that cares about design and user experience.

Linear

Linear is another company that invests heavily in the design of its homepage.

In the last few years, Linear’s design has become extremely popular to the point where “Linear Design” is now considered its own type of UI design. The style, which has been replicated by many other startups, mimics the dark backgrounds of coding environments to appeal to developers. 

Because of the success of the Linear Design, each new update they make on their website is usually greeted by a bunch of buzz on social media.

Amie

Amie’s design is really unique. They implemented a beautiful scroll animation that showcases the product's capabilities in an easy and intuitive way.

The design quickly got a bunch of attention on social media:

This proves you don't have to be a big name like Stripe to get people talking about your homepage. Amie is a relatively new tool, yet they still managed to create a lot of buzz with their original design.

Investing in creating a unique homepage really paid off here. Many people visited the website because of the design and ended up learning about the tool, too.

Should I?

Why This Works

• It shows the company’s focus on product and design: A beautiful homepage and a great UX convey the idea that the company cares about the user experience. This message resonates not only externally but also internally, fostering a culture where design and user experience are paramount. Moreover, opting for a distinctive design that stands out instead of following the crowd signifies the company's commitment to innovation and originality.

• It serves as a marketing tool: The homepage can be a tool to get people talking about your company on social media. This is particularly evident if the company has built a reputation for creating exceptional homepage designs. When a new homepage is unveiled on social media, it prompts conversations and may even inspire others to emulate similar designs, thereby continuously keeping the company and its homepage in the spotlight.

• It differentiates the company from competitors: In scenarios where a potential client is weighing options between competitors, a captivating design and superior user experience on the homepage can serve as decisive factors. This is especially true if the company is oriented to people who care about design. Amie, for example, is oriented to founders and product people who care about UX, so the design of the tool will be important for them.

How to Apply It

• Do not copy, not even from businesses in different industries. To convey that your company is innovative and groundbreaking, you must develop something unique and original. 

• Go with one specific style. For example, Stripe is recognized for its use of gradients, while Amie consistently incorporates animations, and Relume offers interactive features for user engagement. Choosing a specific style and going all-in with it makes it easier for your company’s design to be recognized and remembered. 

• Be willing to dedicate resources and time. Stripe’s last homepage redesign took over a year. These innovative designs require a creative process that takes a lot of time.

• Treat your homepage launch as a new product or feature release. Given the considerable resources invested in redesigning, capitalize on the opportunity to generate buzz on social media. Share the revamped homepage with your audience, including existing customers, to maximize visibility and engagement.

Yes, But

• It is expensive and time-consuming. Building an innovative homepage requires a dedicated team of designers and front-end developers, potentially diverting resources from other critical projects.

• Innovation is difficult, especially considering that there are 1.88 billion websites online. When you start trying to create an original design, it is easy to believe that everything has already been invented.

• It has no direct or attributable benefits. A great design can increase conversion rates, but this is not necessarily the case. Moreover, it is hard to measure the benefits of being perceived as an innovative or product-oriented company.

• It may introduce distractions. Certain design elements, such as Relume's interactive features, can divert users' attention, hurting conversion rates.

Keep Learning

Others Playing It

• Relume has made a unique interactive website that has gotten a lot of attention in social media.

• Equals homepage and landing page show that you can always find new aesthetics and designs.

• Rows changed their homepage for their actual product for some time, and it doubled their conversions.

Go Deeper

• An interview with a designer from the WPP Stripe team.

• A guide to Stripe’s design choices.

• Why “Make it Like Stripe” is not always a good idea.

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That’s all for this edition.

Cheers,

Nico