Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by patio11 4978 days ago
Bonus points: if you A/B test, you'll also learn to make improvements which go against the advice of the experts... and the "experts."

The first example which jumps to mind: "Sitewide navigation should be consistent" is a common UX bromide and is provably suboptimal with regards to conversions of interest, including signup to SaaS trials and success with checkout at e-commerce sites. (n.b. those are my results, and I've repeated each multiple times with consulting clients, but they may not be your results, which is why you want to A/B test.)
2 comments
mrxd 4978 days ago
There are very few universal UX principles -- context almost always matters. The idea of universal UX principles is a holdover from the 80s when the field was still dominated by cognitive psychology approaches to HCI.

Having said that, UX is intended to help users achieve their goals. A/B testing is generally used to achieve business goals. Those two things are not necessarily always aligned.

link
adrianhoward 4978 days ago
Even better - have A/B testing and experts. They're good at understanding why some A/B tests come out certain ways, can point out issues that might need further investigation, and can help discover new tweaks and fixes that you can, in turn, A/B test.

(I know Patrick isn't saying this - but I hit the 'we don't need UX / we don't need usability tests - we A/B test!' thing quite a bit now and it's bloody annoying. Both because (a) yes you do, and (b) the folk saying it are usually doing a lousy job of A/B testing ;-)

link