Google has just launched a new feature to their google maps toolset. They now allow you to change the route for a trip that you have requested directions for. So, if their is a road you really want to go down but the standard route just does not appeal to you…move the blue line. It is that simple. The route is then re-calculated for time and distance depending on the route you select

Check it out, it is a great way to take a 2 hour drive from Jacksonville to Melbourne and turn it in to a 7 hour detour.

So now you are beginning to plan your first A|B test.  Upper management has buy-in and is willing to give you everything you need to pull this off (in a perfect world).  Now you need to figure out what will determine your test to be successful. 

 To start, it depends on what variables you are testing.  Here are some thoughts on various tests to get you thinking.

Emails

• In general, open rates are a bogus metric to use except in the case of a subject line test.  Be careful with this as there are considerations you will need to think about when sending to certain ISP’s.
• Clickthrough rate will be a good metric to determine the effectiveness of the content of the email.
• Conversion can be tough to use as it can be more of a measure of a users experience on the site more so than the content of your test

Landing Pages

• Conversion will be the key indicator in this case.  This generally means that the customer saw the page and clicked through a call to action or headline on this page
• Exit rate will be another good measurement to use.  If a user visits your site from a search engine or email, the user is going to expect the content to be relevant.  Obviously you are testing the relavancy of content in this case.  If the exit rate for one site is higher than the other, it is a good indicator that the content is not relevant

Changes to a process (ie…checkout)

• Before you begin your test, take a look at the steps a user needs to follow in order to complete the process you presenting to them.  Most analytics tools allow you to program a sequence of steps (sometimes knowns as a funnel) either through character strings in a URL or through variables coded on a page.  Use this analysis to determine if you see an increase in abandonment at a certain step of the process

Page Layout

• It is best to segment a few pages that you can separate from the remainder of the site.  This will make conversion easier to calculate
• Just a we did with a process, we want to test the number of customers who start at one point, and follow through to another.
• If a change to your page includes aspects which could effect the value of a transaction, you will want to look at the revenue associated with the test
• If any change you make could effect the way the page is viewed in certain screen/browser combinations or have specific technology requirements, be sure you are looking at the effect your change has on those customers.

Overall, you must realize that it will be difficult to perfectly balance traffic in a 50/50 split.  In some cases, you may not be testing a 50/50 split but rather a 75/25.  In these cases, you will want to use weighted metrics such as Average order value, conversion, Units per transaction, etc…

This is great.  It hits the nail on the head.  Technology has come so far in the last 30 years that we are now going back to big and bulky, non-portable, computers.  Sure, its neat…but do we need a $10,000 coffee table?  Could you imagine the accessories that would be available.  Now introducing, the Microsoft Banzai Centerpiece.

Video: Parody of Microsoft Surface

Mark Brownlow wrote this a few weeks back. You have to be a web geek to truly understand this. Just so happens, I am. Also coupled with the fact that I studied ancient Rome way back when. Enjoy…I did!

1. The destruction of Pompeii in 79AD is the most viewed video at YouTube. The first comment is…”OMG so cool! Volcanos ROCK!”
2. Attila the Hun has his own MySpace page. Nobody ever rejects his “invite a friend” emails.
3. The soothsayer’s “Ides of March” email fails to get Caesar’s proper attention as it’s inadvertently filtered into his junk folder.
4. But at least Caesar’s “Et tu Brute?” comment is available as a free ringtone download.
5. The domain gladiator.rome sells for the record sum of 1,000,000 denarii.
6. The owner of hadriansucks.rome is compelled to hand over both the domain name and selected body parts by an independent domain tribunal chaired by…Emperor Hadrian.
7. “Naked Cleopatra” is the top search term on Google.
8. Unfortunately, the Queen of Egypt dies an early death after misunderstanding IT’s call to embrace an ASP solution.
9. Hannibal blogs his way across the Alps with posts like, “Whoops, lost another elephant today.”
10. But he runs out of money when his PPC budget is plundered by an iberian click scam organized by Publius Cornelius Scipio.
11. Tiber.com opens, initially selling scrolls and tablets before expanding to include togas, pottery, and do-it-yourself mosaic kits.
12. Websites like handsome-literate-male-british-slave.com pollute the search listings thanks to generous commissions at the slaves.co.rome affiliate program.
13. Roman programmers moan about projects outsourced to cheap coders in Mesopotamia.
14. The Colosseum is renamed the eBay Colosseum, with free wireless hotspots outside the lark’s tongue restaurant.
15. The volume of spam collapses when the penalty for not providing a working opt-out mechanism becomes equal billing with the lions at the eBay Colosseum.
16. But we still get emails featuring Brunhilda, the lonely Visigoth, and hot deals on cheap peacock livers from Gaul.
17. Nobody invents a spam filter good enough for the House of the Vestals.
18. Classical geeks wear t-shirts proclaiming, “there’s no place like CXXVII.0.0.I” (bonus points if you get that one)
19. Finally, Rome burns to the ground while Emperor Nero battles online with Hakkar the Soulflayer in World of Warcraft.

Better yet, do you A|B test? If so, why not? You should be. You should be continuously testing. Whether it be as simple as a variation in a headline or whether you simply change a an image on a landing page. You will be surprised to find out that some enhancements or ideas that you think are the greatest thing since sliced bread will turn out to be hurting your site performance. If you are an e-commerce site, you should be without a doubt testing as your business depends on the customer being able to complete a transaction.

What is A|B testing you may ask. It is a simple test of 2 variables to see which performs better. Your metrics for success could be different depending on what you are going after. If you are trying to increase your mailing list size, obviously the number of email addresses you collect will be your metric of choice. On the other hand, if you are attempting to decrease your checkout abandonment rate, you metric could be a conversion number of those customers who entered checkout over those customers who completed checkout. There are further variations on this which is known as multivariate testing. This is a test of more than one variable on a particular page. A little bit more difficult to test and measure, but it allows you to get the most out of a test.

The information you gather from these test results will be invaluable. It is a great study in customer behavior and a great way to introduce usability testing to your business. The key to everything is you must determine the items that you feel will be actionable for each test. No sense in testing something and not doing something about it.

Here are some ideas to get you started…

• Landing Page headline
• Color/location/size of an “add to cart” button
• Location of search
• Location of a newsletter signup
• font color/size used on your pages
• Checkout process (for e-commerce sites)

There is so much more to take into consideration before you begin testing. I suggest thinking about what aspects of your website you can test and how it might apply to the type of site you maintain. I’ll try to add more as time goes on. Start with some focus groups or usability studies. Get some of your customers together to talk about the challenges they face on a daily basis. Not able to reach out to your local customers, try surveying them.