The Importance of A/B Testing and Optimizing the User Experience
February 25, 2011I was recently reading Tim Peter’s blog where he discussed not being afraid of A/B testing and it got me thinking about why not to A/B test with a website.
The only case I can come up with where one wouldn’t want to A/B test is really when it just becomes too cost or time-prohibitive to do so or when there are more important business updates (features, fixes or enhancements) that resources should handle first. In addition, you have sites that just might be for personal use that just aren’t worth the time or effort.
In the cases where those conditions are not true, what happens far too often with sites is that whoever makes the business decisions on the look or text believes they have the best solution. They aren’t necessarily wrong, but their personal preference or belief isn’t necessarily going to maximize their site – whatever maximizing might be for them (purchases, newsletter sign-ups, etc).
Often, what an A/B test will show you is that what you or someone else thought was best was truly not. That’s the real goal: finding what’s best, and that’s what A/B tests do. And who doesn’t want to be the best?
