When designing an awesome website, don’t just consider its look and feel. Even consider the facts & figures which support your website’s concept. But remember, the decisions you make in your web development will have a larger impact on how your website will turn out to be. 

To avoid any kind of peril in the long run, incorporate the A/B testing approach. The approach is somewhat like having a Plan A & Plan B, and testing both plans simultaneously, and finalising the one that best supports the website concept & gives great results. Akin to A/B testing, one can have a better final product to your name, which runs smoothly & offers a hands-on user experience.

Now, let us get a deeper idea of what A/B testing is in web design and development. 

What is A/B testing?

A/B testing is an approach used by web development companies when designing a website. The web designers develop two sets of designs – Design A & Design B. The two sets of designs, which are variably different yet powerful, are tested in order to know which one is the best of the two. 

A/B testing is more like an experience. Designs A & design B are shown randomly to the users, and data is collected on which website design performs better and encourages the users to click the main CTA/try on the service.  

A/B testing is also known as split testing or bucket testing, or variation testing. The reason why it is called split testing is that the users are split into two groups, and two different variations of the design of the same page are shared with the group. For example, group A is supposed to use Design A, and group B is supposed to use Design B. 

Then, whichever group performs better in reaching the predefined goal, that design is considered more important as it brings greater interaction. 

To give a brief info about A/B testing, it was first used in 1753 by James Lind to treat patients of Scurvy, as scurvy was the main cause of the death of seafarers. James Lind, the physician, divided the Scurvy patient into 6 pairs and gave each pair different kinds of medication, mainly related to citrus, like vinegar, citrus fruits, cider, etc., to know which medication works the best in the afflicted patients. The result showed that citrus fruits enriched with Vitamin C, like lemon and orange, were the best medication for scurvy patients. And this is how A/B testing came into being. 

Let’s dive into why A/B testing is important in web design & development and why web developers should use it. 

Why should web development company A/B test their website? 

The A/B testing approach in design & development enables companies and firms to make informed decisions based on true facts & figures. This gives room for more hypotheses and careful decisions on which designs to incorporate so that users are incited to click the main CTA and try out the services. 

That’s not it; A/B testing can also be used to settle an argument between you and your client. 

Let’s say, 

• Your client like Design A because they think it will get more leads
• Whereas, you, as a web designer, think that Design B looks good & will be more appealing. 

In that case, what you can do is A/B test, and prevent any kind of heartburn from both parties. Because you will definitely have to go with what statistics say, aka what the users prefer. 

Moreover, it can also be used in order to check new features, and whether the masses will like it or not. And also, if you get insights on which design elements prefer more, then it will also act as a further hypothesis on which element you should be using more often as that’s what your users like more. 

Okay now to the main point, you can know how you can get started with A/B testing.

How to get started with A/B testing?

Here we have curated a simple process to get started with A/B testing. The inputs are from a top web development company in Ireland, hope it helps you.

1. Look into your current insights. 

Check what your website is signalling. Go to Google Analytics or any other SEO tool you’re using, and run a site audit. They will provide you some suggestions where you can improve your website, and that will also include website optimisation based on designs. Take note of the suggestions. 

2. Pre-define your goal. 

Once you have analysed your website carefully. Looked into different pages, made note of the pages which are not doing good & require greater optimization, so now is the time to set an end goal for your A/B testing. 

But take care, that your end goal should be exact – something like, on this service page, i want visitors to click on this CTA. Having a predefined goal will make your journey easy. 

3. Design different ‘design’ variations.

Now is the time to put your research into actually designing the page. Make changes with different design elements, like content, CTAs, top banner, colour code, main service presentation, etc. And create 2-3 variations, and once you’re done select the best A & B, which you know will rock the game. 

4. A/B test the variations

Now is the time to test your designs. Set off with your users divided into two groups and use the A-B variations. Use a plugin to track all the moves of your visitors, so you have greater data at hand. The data you will get, will help you compare, contrast and infer the results. Oh yes, did we forget that you will also have to wait for the end result? 

5. Look into the results. 

Once you’re done testing in a set period of time, now is the time to examine your result, of which design did great – Design A or Design B. Was it as per your expectation or it was something different. Whatever it is, know that this is what your users prefer and this is the design you should go on with. 

Ok so to wrap up, 

Conclusion 

After going through this guide of the role of A/B testing in web design & development. We hope you have inferred a lot of things & next stop will be actually applying the A/B testing approach. 

Remember that anything backed by data is powerful and has the potential to raise up your rankings. If you’re looking for web development Ireland, connect with a reliable group of web developers Ireland to bring your website in the best of forms. A/B testing is a valuable solution and can help you bring in greater conversions & ROIs. So, all the best, as you embark on your A/B testing journey. 

Author Bio

Ciaran Stone is the CEO of Square Root Solutions, – An well-known web development company that helps businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups transmute their web development ideas into actual applications. In his spare time, Ciaran likes to write an article on different aspects of app development.