Most “bad” redesigns don’t lose on the surface. They lose in the places you aren’t measuring.
This is a story about a homepage test that looked fine on primary metrics, looked great in design reviews, and quietly wrecked enrollment confirms.
The root cause wasn’t a hero headline, a color, or a button. It was a single link change that rewired the entire user journey.
The setup: a clean homepage, a clear hypothesis
The team’s brief was simple:
Modernize the homepage, reduce clutter, and guide users more clearly into the funnel.
The control homepage had: