Kay, 

Your proposed test is not what I think of as A/B testing. Our A/B testing is showing one or the other variant to the same user segment (usually in the live production environment) and watching which performs better.

Presenting on the same screen side by side is an attempt to not lead the participants? This seems to invite careful perusal of the differences, and that's usually not what we're going for. What we seek in the usability lab are the untutored, knee-jerk reactions that we can't anticipate. Inviting careful perusal invites participants to play "designer." Our team doesn't suffer from a lack of such opinions - what we seek are the revelations that we weren't able to anticipate.

There will be unavoidable left-right bias I believe, and the test experience doesn't compare to the "one solution per screen" actual experience. 

Seems like it might be better to show each variant (and perhaps some dummies) several times and have the participant rank each with a numerical scale, with duplications of each to weed out the biases.

-Susan








On Sep 29, 2010, at 7:54 AM, Kay Corry Aubrey wrote:

> Hi - can anyone on the  Chi-web list suggest innovative usability test
> design approaches for A/B testing? Both A and B will be presented on the
> same screen and the user needs to peruse each and choose the one they
> prefer. I am looking for ideas on the best UIs to present text and pictures
> most effectively for this type of purpose and was wondering if folks on the
> list have suggestions. 
> 
> Please send your ideas to me and I will collect, summarize, and send out to
> the list. 
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Kay 
> 
> Kay Corry Aubrey, user-centered research and design 
> Usability Resources Inc | www.UsabilityResources.net |
> [log in to unmask]
> Phone: 781-275-3020 | Fax: 1-781-998-0325
> 
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