AI & Automation
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Picture this: you've spent weeks crafting the perfect feature page following every UX "best practice" you could find. Beautiful hero sections, carefully curated testimonials, feature grids that would make any designer proud. Then you launch it and... crickets. Sound familiar?
I used to be that designer obsessing over pixel-perfect layouts while my clients' conversion rates stayed stubbornly flat. The wake-up call came when I worked with a Shopify client who had over 1,000 products and was drowning in their own success - their beautiful homepage was getting traffic, but visitors were bouncing faster than a rubber ball.
Here's what I discovered: most feature page "best practices" are actually common practices disguised as wisdom. When everyone follows the same playbook, that playbook becomes noise.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why traditional feature page structures fail in 2025
The counterintuitive homepage strategy that doubled conversions
How to turn your feature sections into actual sales drivers
The 4-step framework I use for every feature page redesign
Platform-specific tactics for SaaS and ecommerce
This isn't theory - it's what actually worked when I ditched conventional wisdom and started treating websites like marketing laboratories instead of digital brochures.
Industry Reality
What every designer has been taught
Walk into any design agency or browse through Dribbble, and you'll see the same feature page formula repeated endlessly. It's become the holy grail of web design, and honestly, I fell for it too in my early freelance days.
The Standard Feature Page Recipe:
Hero section with compelling headline and CTA
Social proof section with logos and testimonials
Feature grid highlighting 6-9 key benefits
"How it works" section with 3-step process
More testimonials and case studies
Final CTA section
This structure exists because it feels logical. It follows the traditional sales funnel thinking: awareness → interest → consideration → action. Design schools teach it, agencies sell it, and clients expect it.
But here's the uncomfortable truth: this approach treats every visitor like they're following the same linear journey. In reality, people land on your feature pages from dozens of different sources with wildly different intentions.
The biggest flaw? It optimizes for looking professional instead of driving action. When every website follows the same structure, you're not standing out - you're blending in with wallpaper. And in today's attention economy, blending in is the kiss of death.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The project that changed everything was with a Shopify client running a fashion e-commerce store with over 1,000 products. On paper, their metrics looked decent - good traffic numbers, reasonable time on site. But the conversion rate was bleeding out, and they couldn't figure out why.
Their homepage was a masterpiece of conventional wisdom. Beautiful hero banner showcasing their brand story, carefully curated "Featured Products" section, testimonials from happy customers, and an "Our Collections" grid that would make any UX designer proud.
But when I dug into their analytics, I discovered something brutal: visitors were using the homepage as nothing more than a doorway. They'd land, immediately click "All Products," and then get lost in an endless scroll of items. The homepage had become irrelevant to their actual shopping behavior.
The data told a clear story:
Homepage was the most viewed page (obviously)
But it had terrible engagement metrics
Most visitors spent less than 10 seconds before clicking away
The beautiful feature sections were being completely ignored
I realized we were optimizing for the wrong goal. Instead of trying to tell their brand story, we needed to solve their customers' actual problem: finding the right product quickly in a massive catalog.
That's when I decided to break every "best practice" rule in the book.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of fighting the user behavior, I decided to work with it. If people were treating the homepage like a product discovery tool, why not make it the best damn product discovery tool possible?
Here's what I did that went against every design principle:
1. Killed the Traditional Homepage Structure
I removed the hero banner completely. No brand story, no mission statement, no beautiful lifestyle photography. Gone. I also deleted the "Featured Products" sections and "Our Collections" blocks - everything that stood between visitors and actual products.
2. Created a Mega-Menu Navigation System
This was the game-changer. I built an AI workflow that automatically categorized new products across 50+ categories, making product discovery possible without ever leaving the navigation. Customers could find exactly what they wanted in seconds.
3. Transformed the Homepage Into a Product Gallery
Here's where it gets controversial: I displayed 48 products directly on the homepage. No fancy grids, no curated collections - just products, products, products. The only additional element was a small testimonials section at the bottom.
4. Optimized for Speed Over Beauty
Every design decision was made with one question: "Does this help customers find and buy products faster?" If the answer was no, it got cut.
The transformation was immediate and dramatic. The homepage went from being a pretty but useless gateway to becoming the most effective sales page on the entire site.
Mega-Menu Magic
Built an AI categorization system that sorted 1000+ products into 50+ logical categories, making navigation intuitive and instant.
Product-First Design
Displayed 48 products directly on homepage, eliminating the middleman between visitor intent and product discovery.
Data-Driven Decisions
Every element was evaluated on one criterion: does it help customers buy faster? If not, it was removed entirely.
Speed Over Beauty
Prioritized functionality and conversion over visual appeal, proving that utility beats aesthetics in ecommerce.
The results spoke louder than any design award could:
Conversion Rate Impact:
The overall conversion rate doubled within the first month of implementation. More importantly, the homepage reclaimed its position as not just the most viewed page, but the most used page on the site.
User Behavior Changes:
Average session duration increased by 40%
Pages per session jumped from 2.1 to 4.3
Cart abandonment rate decreased by 25%
Return visitor rate increased significantly
The Unexpected Bonus:
Customer support tickets about "finding products" dropped by 60%. When navigation is intuitive, customers don't need help - they can help themselves.
But the most telling metric? Time to purchase decreased significantly. Customers were finding what they wanted faster and buying with less friction.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This experiment taught me five crucial lessons that changed how I approach every feature page design:
1. User Behavior Beats Design Theory
Stop designing for how you think users should behave. Design for how they actually behave. Analytics tell the real story, not design blogs.
2. Industry Standards Are Starting Points, Not Finish Lines
"Best practices" are often just "common practices." When you have a unique challenge, you need a unique solution.
3. Friction Kills Conversions
Every extra click, every additional page, every moment of confusion costs you customers. Ruthlessly eliminate steps between intent and action.
4. Context Matters More Than Convention
A fashion store with 1,000+ products needs different UX than a SaaS with 3 pricing tiers. Don't force square pegs into round holes.
5. Test Bold Changes, Not Button Colors
Incremental improvements rarely move the needle. Sometimes you need to break things completely to rebuild them better.
6. Speed Trumps Beauty
In ecommerce, customers care more about finding products quickly than admiring your design skills.
7. AI Can Solve Scale Problems
Use automation to handle complexity behind the scenes while keeping the user experience simple.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS applications, focus on progressive disclosure - show core value immediately, then layer complexity for power users. Use trial-focused design that gets users to their "aha moment" faster.
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores, prioritize product discoverability over brand storytelling. Implement smart categorization and search functionality. Consider conversion-focused layouts that reduce friction between browsing and buying.