- July 12, 2008 by david
A/B Testing - Strawberries or Cherries?
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Here at Pod1 we are very passionate about things and this goes as well for such dry things as A/B testing. Everyone talks about it but what is it and how can you do it?
With A/B testing you take the HiPPO (Highest Paid Person in the Organisation) out of the equation. HiPPOs are usually the ones who say things like: I like this so you have to do it.
A/B testing puts figures behind guesswork and these usually impresses the HiPPO.A/B testing as well means that you will produce a loosing version and this might lead to lower conversion (if you test conversion). But that is the whole point, as you want to find the winner.
As you may see I can get quite passionate about these things and I tend to take this home with me. This can lead to my Girlfriend being quite upset because after the theatre when she has to listen to me ranting about the Train Ticket machine and its poor usability. I bet Southern Trains has such a high AOV because their interface is so bad.
So in order to make up for that I decided to do, you can guess it, some A/B testing at home. What at home? Yes.
To make up for me always talking about Usability and User experience I decided to make a Pancake for Breakfast for her following the classic test setup.
1. Define a need
Girlfriend hungry.Good that done we need to define our target audience.
2. Define Target audience:
Just Girlfriend is like “ABC 25-35 with lots of spare cash” (yours in this case), too generic. We need to define the persona: She really likes warm breakfast but also Yoghurt with Fruit, but she doesn’t like muesli very much. Often people only look at the first most obvious definition (ABC 25-35 likes warm breakfast) if they dive into the whole persona development thing, but there is a danger here:
If you serve her a Fry Up (warm breakfast), you probably haven’t understood your target audience very well as the result is likely that she moves back to her Mom.3. Define success:
The pancake is the base of all and won’t change, it’s like the outer frame of your website unless you test the outer frame of your website. You have to plan what the filling for the pancake will be and make an educated guess about which one will win. This way you define the goals of this test and you can measure the results against it. Careful here, there are many micro actions that look like success (she making noises of appreciation like MMMMM, Yam etc,) but at the end you want the plate to be empty or a 1-2-1 in a very private area of the house. You define the goals so aim high but not too high.4. Run the test:
Make the pancake and serve it straight from the pan no filling; with this please. Now you need to wait and see how the pancake is perceived. We need to establish a control result to test our variations against. Note down the feedback she gives. If she runs straight to the Jam/Nutella/Sugar Jar, you have done some usability testing at the time. That’s the great thing about testing you do many things at the same time which saves time and money.After this we set up the test variations. My Girlfriend likes Strawberries and Cherries so I decided to use these. The test took a while to complete but I think I have found the winning combination. But you need to be careful with the initial results.
You will get some feedback very quickly (Yam or Yak) but wait until she is finished. If she doesn’t finish the pancake then even if she said it tastes nice initially, you have done something wrong and you need to test a different combination. Careful with trying to do it with too much fruit (think rich media). Results are initially very encouraging but if you get this wrong the result is a lot of soggy pancake on plate.
As with all good things you need to keep testing (I’m doing that now for about half a year). Sometimes you will get it wrong (Strawberries + Yoghurt and no sugar) and sometimes you will get it right but always keep testing.
Once you are done testing the pancakes you can test the next thing, I’m currently working on Brioche, freshly made.
Pancake with Yoghurt and Cherries
10-15 fresh Cherries
1 tbs granulated sugar
Shot glass of water75g plain flour
50 ml full fat milk
1g baking powder
1 Egg3 tbs Greek Yoghurt
Pit the cherries and place in a very small saucepan. Sprinkle with the sugar and put aside for 10 minutes. Place the saucepan on the hob and heat very gently. After 5 minutes add the water and keep on low heat for a little while. The aim is to concentrate the cherry flavour.
While the cherries reduce, mix the flour with the baking powder and add milk and the egg. Use a whisk to make a smooth not too runny pancake dough.Place the butter in a frying pan and fry the pancake from both sides until golden brown.
Take it out of the pan and place the Yoghurt in a line across the centre, top with the Cherries and flap over in the middle. Serve immediately.
Variations:
Strawberries with a bit of Cognac
Strawberries raw but with Honey on the pancake
Banana with Honey and cinnamonMultivariate option:
Cherries and strawberries combined
Fry 1 pancake the day before, then cut it in small stripes and fry again with lots of sugar in the pan (Caramelise it basically). Use this as a crunchy topping on the Fruit/Yoghurt variant. - July 9, 2008 by FS
New York Times Hails Pod1 NYC
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Ok ok ok, I’m exaggerating…we have a minuscule mention half way down this page that literally says:
“Kirna Zabête, a clothing retailer, named Pod1, London and New York, to develop an e-commerce Web site.”
Doesn’t link to us, or the client, but hey, it’s a start!
One small step for mankind and all that…
- July 8, 2008 by FS
Podders Party in NYC
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Retro cool fashion brand, Le Jean De threw one of their crazy parties in NYC on 3rd July. They were just round the corner so we couldn’t resist popping by..
(Left to right: Dude, Marc, Fadi, Paula, Simon, Catherine)
Pod1 NYC is currently beavering away working on the new Le Jean De eCommerce site which will launch in September 08. In the meantime, check out their eclectic blog.
- July 3, 2008 by OS
Shooting in the office…
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…with very shallow depth of field.
Few studio shots I did yesterday. Everyone in the office seemed to like them. Or maybe they just did not want to be rude… Anyway, you can see the rest of the photos in my blog.
- April 9, 2008 by AS
Research from eMarketer
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From Crowdstorm blog:
New research out from eMarketer again, argues that shoppers are increasingly trusting each other when it comes to finding credible information advice about products or companies:
The fact is that knowledgeable and trusted peers provide valuable advice and insight to people trying to find the right products to buy and gain the advice and information they need. In fact, JupiterResearch reckons that online social network users were three time more likely to trust their peers’ opinions over advertising when making purchase decisions:
So, what does this really mean… Well, I think that people are actually getting more savvy in how they find and absorb information and that people are now looking to credible expert sources and trusted peers compared to just lists and lists of anonymous or not-related reviews. Ultimately no-one wants to be fooled by advertising or biased reviews, and having trusted sources from experts, opinion leaders, peers, and friends - can really help people feel more confident in their product research.
Social Graph + Research + Shopping -> 2008 is the year..
- March 26, 2008 by NB
Japanese URLs are out…
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Awesome blog entry from the Co-Founder of Panic Inc, detailing how Japan is shifting from using URLs on adverts, to showing people the search terms they should use in their favourite search engines.
It makes sense, right? All the good domain names are gone. Getting people to a specific page in a big site is difficult (who’s going to write down anything after the first slash?). And, most tellingly, I see increasingly more users already inadvertently put complete domain names like “gmail” and “netflix” into the Search box of their browsers out of habit — and it doesn’t even register that Google pops up and they have to click to get to their destination.
- March 7, 2008 by MA
Wisdom of words
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From Martin Firrell who has a way with projecting words. His next project can be seen on St Paul’s Cathedral in November 2008. More information on his site www.martinfirrell.com
- March 6, 2008 by MA
A Benchmark idea
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Designed by Sungwoo Park. A bit worrying though if you are a poor homeless person trying to get some kip! - February 22, 2008 by RP
Difficult First Test for Pod1 Football Team
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Match Report: Pod1 4 v Mohammed FC 7
Pod1 FC kicked off their 2008 season campaign with a closely fought game against the league favorites ‘Mohammed FC’ last night. After losing two early goals in the first half, Pod1 clawed their way back into the game with a fantastic strike from ‘The Gaffer’ Simon Bell. Pod1 kept the pressure on throughout the first half and had several good chances to take the lead but failed to find the target. At the other end of the Park ‘JR’ John Richardson was playing well in goals and made some crucial saves to keep Pod1 in the game. However, at the stroke of half time Pod1 lost another crucial goal and finished the half 3-1 down.The second half started brightly for Pod1 with a goal from…me, but the gap opened once again as Mohammed FC replied with two quick goals to make the score 5-2. ‘JR Junior’ found the net moments later to bring the score to 5-3, but once again Mohammed FC were quick to reply with another goal making it 6-3. Pod1 changed tactics for the final 5 minutes of the match, Bell went in goal and JR came outfield. The tactical switch paid off immediately following a stunning reflex save from Bell. Some good passing work from Richardson Jnr resulted in another goal from me to bring the score up to 6-4. Just when it looked as though Pod1 could salvage a draw, Mohammed struck again to make the score 7-4 in the dying minutes.
A respectable start to the season for Pod1, a win is surely just around the corner.
- February 20, 2008 by Paula
Super Bowl Parade, NYC Giants Victory over the New England Patriots
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It was a tumultuous game against the New England Patriots but the Giants came out in the end fighting.
End all score 17-14- Giants defense kicked ass!!!
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