A/B testing or bucket testing in web design is a technique that compares two different versions of a webpage or application to evaluate the performance. The principle followed by A/B testing is that it makes use of various data & records to validate the new design modifications and your conversion rates. The objective of A/B testing is to compare the variation in the experience that may occur while viewing websites from various devices. It collects various data as a result of new modifications done to the website.
Principles Of A/B Testing
In the process of AB test,
- A web page or app screen is modified to generate an additional version of the same page.
- The changes brought to the web page is very small such as the modifying single headline or a button.
- Once the modification process is accomplished, one-half of the total traffic is shown the actual design while the other half of the users are shown with the modified design.
- The user engagement is analyzed and collected in the analytics dashboard to be analysed through the statistical engine.
- This provides the actual data of impact of both the design in user engagement.
Importance Of A/B Testing
The AB test is ideal for firms or individuals that aim to study the impact of different design patterns on user engagement. Carrying out various modification ensures the actual number of users that are engaged on the website. This, in turn, helps them improve conversion rates through various evaluations and modifications performed on their design.
The Process Of A/B Testing
The entire process of AB testing has to be carried out through a sequence of steps as mentioned below:-
- Collect Data- It is the first step towards AB testing that aims to study current traffic of the website and its engagement. The data to be collected is based on the traffic gained from different sources, location etc. This data can help improve traffic from pages with low conversions and high drop-off rates.
- Determine Your Objectives- The goal is determined on the stats based on the initial design compared to the modified design.
- Propose Hypothesis- Once the objectives are determined, new ideas and suggestions are sought from experts and prioritized based on various opinions.
- Create Variations- Now, when your goals are determined, it’s time to implement the changes to the design using AB testing software. This might be modifying the color of buttons, modifying different elements etc.
- Run Experiments- This is the final step towards A/B Testing that performs the testing on both the designs i.e. new design vs original design and provides you with various data on website traffic.
Conclusion
So, that’s a brief about AB testing which is one of the major components of evaluating the performance of the website from the perspective of testing the conversion rates of any business firm. It is undoubtedly the most desirable form of testing that provides you with in-depth analysis on website engagement.
