Some seo and marketing companies believe or state that the split testing (running two different versions of a page, pages or services on your website) or multivariate testing (certain page elements are being replaced and tested in paralell with other variants) is the magic bullet for increasing your rate of profit; but before we believe everything, let’s think twice: do people like malls and supermarkets? They do; Tesco, Salesbury or Auchan are popular examples of supermarkets where price is a major winning factor: one doesn’t go to Tesco because shopping is a “joy” – one goes to such place, because the quality is “pretty much okay” while the prices (and season sales) are unbeatable.
During split tests usability should be a major concern: an ad filled, blinking-scrolling website “probably” will not be as popular as a clear, well designed web shop – during these early periods the split test will show what we prety much know: I wouldn’t go to Tesco for a weekend shopping if it was a dirty, rotten place on the end of nowhere. Or I would: give me an unbeatable price and I might consider spending my money there (hence many butt ugly webshops with Joomla, Drupal and other home made CMSs exist) – with a better, comfortable environment the rate of return would clearly increase. But what happens if the services are fine, the layout is okay, navigation is user friendly – and you get all excited about testing small design elements here and there? Would I go to Tesco more often if they painted the doors red? Would I spend more money if they relabel all the products with shiny happy smily labels talking to me in a distinct voice, “have a good time here, dear customer”?
Probably I couldn’t care less. As long as the services are “okay” and I get what I want for my money, it’s just fine – treating the customers like a bunch of monkeys, trying out small “fine tunings” on your shop (let it be a webshop or a real store) will not boost those numbers; either because your monkeys don’t care (they already know where the banana is, how it looks like and the trees already look and feel pretty familiar) or just because monkeys and psychology don’t mix. You, as a designer, can tell yourself how your newly designed click-me button is so much better, or you, as a copy writer can tell yourself how your new copy makes the user want to click on the product, in the end you just convince yourself about what you want to hear. And what will happen in these cases with your numbers? There will be 1-2% fluctuations, nothing else. Have fun figuring out those numbers.