Most testimonial sections are decoration.

Most testimonial sections are decoration. This one was costing conversions.

A client's social proof section looked beautiful. It also took four full screens of scrolling to read four sentences, the text was tilted 12° so it was genuinely uncomfortable to read, and one of the "customers" on a wedding platform was a web developer talking about his portfolio.

Nobody was reading it. Which means nobody was being convinced by it.

What I changed:

→ Straightened the cards. Pretty is worthless if the words are hard to read. → Deleted the decorative connector line. It implied the reviews were in some order. They weren't. → Cut the section height by more than half. Same content, one screen. → Rewrote the reviews to name actual outcomes: "two weddings booked in my first month" instead of "great platform."

The "before" is the more designed one. The "after" is the one that does its job. Knowing the difference — and being willing to delete your own good idea — is most of the job.

I'm a product designer working across marketing surfaces and complex product systems (this section, and a multi-chain wallet dashboard in the same month). Open to product design roles — permanent or contract, US or remote.

Founders: when did you last read your own testimonials section all the way through?