Please share this blog if you think others would benefit and follow @tombowdenCRO on twitter and join him in the crusade to Shoot the HIPPO
10 Killer Steps to Creating A/B Tests that Work
Open up the page that you want to improve then perform the following:
1) Start with the end in mind
Look at the page you are planning to test. Ask yourself what is the purpose of this page?
The purpose is always money.
Make sure that any future recommendations you make achieve this!
2) Usability or Persuasion?
If you could fix either the
Usability (how the page works, buttons, navigation etc)
or
Persuasion (how clear/ convincing the message the site gives is)
which would it be? Pick one to focus on.
3) What does the business/ product/ service do?
Write a short concise statement about what the business/ service/ product does. Cross reference this with what the page actually says. It is rare that the page says what the business/ product/ service actually does! You will be working to make sure it does.
4) Remove everything that isn’t elephant.
Ask a sculpture how they sculpted an elephant and they will tell you that all they did was take away everything that wasn’t elephant.
Take a screenshot of the page and using paint (or something more fancy if you like) take away everything on the page that does not help the page achieve its goal.
Be brutal and take everything you can off the page. Interesting huh…
5) Ask… How do people buy the products/services that the site offers?
Do people choose by price, by colour, by size, by quality, by model, by purpose etc etc etc?
6) Use research findings
Hopefully you will have read the Top 25 Killer Tools for Shooting HiPPOs blog and you will now have lots of really great information about your customers.
7) Hypothesize
What do you want to learn from the test? Don’t just throw muck at the wall! Make sure that every test variation you create responds to a hypothesis.
Sketch out your Designs
Make it easy for everyone to understand what it is you will be testing by sketching your concepts.
9) Stand Back
Make sure your variations are different. If you can’t tell the difference from 5 metres away the variations are too similar
10) It looks easy when it is done well
The best form of flattery is if no one complains!
The internet needs you! Help protect it from narrow minded HIPPO’s that are hell bent on making websites more complicated than they need to be! Join me in the crusade to Shoot the HIPPO! If you found this useful please share this with everyone that you can and follow @tombowdenCRO on twitter.
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