Synopses & Reviews
Experimentation using A/B, Split, or Multivariate (MV) is a way to make sure you are becoming more competitive, learning about your customers, and protecting your business against loss through bad design choices. Experimenting changes the way you think about design and the way you work. It prevents the loudest voice from deciding the direction; instead, through experimenting, you simply ask your customers, What do you think?
This book is an experimenting manifesto. It will show readers how to use experiments to learn more about their customers' behavior, influences, and decisions; reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a website; and, ultimately, guide designers to make the site work harder and convert better. The author, an experienced website optimization expert, talks about experiment approach, method, design, UX, ideas, results and failure, all with the perspective from his own experiences in the field. He writes in a concise and engaging style, presenting the techniques in small pieces that are easy to grasp. His aim is to inspire readers to start experimenting right now and to challenge assumptions. Once they start experimenting, no one will know better than they about what makes a site convert. This book goes beyond optimizing into new ideas and will inspire readers to boldly challenge everything.
Review
From the back cover:
"Colin avoids pitching controlled experiments as a quick win. With his practical experience, he shares pros and cons, and the fact that when exposed to objective evaluations, very few ideas are as good as we initially hope."– Ron Kohavi, partner-level architect at Microsoft, previously director of data mining and personalisation at Amazon
Synopsis
Testing is a surefire way to dramatically improve your website’s conversion rate and increase revenue. When you run experiments with changes to design or content, you’ll quickly discover which changes better motivate your users to take action. This book shows how to learn from your customers’ behavior and decisions, and how their responses reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your site. It will show you how to make websites that work harder and convert better.
Experiment! will inspire you to challenge assumptions and start experimenting right now. You will:
- Learn how to approach experiments to improve conversion
- Understand the various methods of testing including A/B and multivariate
- Discover experiment ideas, and go beyond optimization to innovation
- Recognize the UX and design implications of experimenting
- Learn to analyze data and deliver results
Experimenting changes the way you think about design and the way you work. It helps prevent the loudest voice from deciding direction; instead, through an experiment, you’ll ask the most important voices--your customers--“What do you think?”
About the Author
Colin McFarland is in charge of experimenting at Shop Direct Group, the UK's biggest shop-at-home group, with a turnover of £15billion a year. He has experimented and improved conversion for Priceline Group, Bank of America, Visit Britain, and Kelloggs. Colin is one of Europe's most experienced experimenters with MVT, beginning in the industry with UX research in his Bsc (Hons) degree, and moving to lead UX roles at respected digital agencies, before focusing on improving conversion with experimenting. Colin has run thousands of tests at large companies around the world, and his documentation of his findings is the basis of this defining book on the subject.
Table of Contents
Part I: Getting Started
Chapter 1: On Experimenting
Chapter 2: On Approach
Chapter 3: On Method
Part II: Interlude
Chapter 4: On UX
Chapter 5: On Design
Chapter 6: On Ideas
Part III: Moving Forward
Chapter 7: On Analysis
Chapter 8: On Results
Chapter 9: Conclusion