Comments on: Another Maxymiser example: which of these shopping basket pages perform best?

By: Predicting Performance « Ephram Zerb

Predicting Performance « Ephram Zerb — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:35:39 +0000

[...] Maxymiser is a company that specializes in optimizing a website’s performance using multivariate testing. Like eye-tracking studies, and heatmaps, the results of multivariate testing are inherently captivating for they provide an empirical stamp on design decisions. Maxymiser releases the results of their testing as case studies (you need to enter your name and email to download them), but it’s even more interesting when you remove the conversion data and ask your site visitors to predict which design will perform better. A lot of people get it wrong. [...]

By: And the winner was…- 90 Percent of Everything

And the winner was…- 90 Percent of Everything — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:47:57 +0000

[...] you didn’t read my previous post, you may want to take quick look and read the comments. Put briefly, Maxymiser recently released the findings from a multivariate testing project. [...]

By: David Hamill

David Hamill — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:10:57 +0000

James, Maxymiser runs on the live site with real customers. So there’s not much arguing about the accuracy of the sample.

By: James

James — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:23:33 +0000

You have not answered enough questions, for us to know if the test or the experts in this blog are more accurate.

We need to know the expected uplift of the winner, the original conversion rate,how many page views, and the length of the experiment. Was there any control for demographics? Was the experiment measuring the purchase of one product or multiple? Did any of the participants have green/red colour blindness?

By: David Hamill

David Hamill — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:27:45 +0000

I’ll go for version 4. It’s the only one that allows the user to work out what the delivery charge is going to be before going any further.

By: P D'Argenio

P D'Argenio — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:21:42 +0000

The real question is, what is a better use of time and budget, using a good, iterative design process in the first place? Or rushing ahead with a bunch of lacklustre designs and then using analytics-based testing to sort it out afterwards?

By: Anna

Anna — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:16:07 +0000

V3 or V4 look simplest, so they are probably the winners. I could probably make them even slicker though.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:43:17 +0000

I’d guess at version 3 winning. It has the clearest view of the basket and best arrangement of buttons. Moving the less important update button away from the other two simplies the choice for the user, while the ‘go to checkout’ option is clearly highlighted.

By: JD

JD — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:36:34 +0000

Version 4 is best.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:55:28 +0000

A big link to customer services should be useful for users who have questions about delivery and stuff.

Also it’s good to have a photo of the item to reassure they have selected the right thing.

So I’d say 2,1,5,4,3? Maybe?

By: Harry Brignull

Harry Brignull — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:51:42 +0000

Hi Steve, I’m going to leave the ‘game’ open until we get a few more comments, then I’ll reveal the answer in a new post. Give it a few days. Sorry for the wait!

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:47:28 +0000

At a push I’d say that the versions with the least noise & fewest options are probably the best performers. Less distractions. Something like 5,4,3,2,1?

But… I can see a few problems with ALL of them. Why is the product name always shown in capitals? Capitals are known to have a negative impact on readability.

The update shopping basket button at the bottom of all of them except V3 is visually disconnected from the function it’s meant to perform (updating the total if the user adjusts the quantity). This means users might not be able to work out how to do this, and give up in frustration.

In V3 they seem to try to fix this but use a really big fontsize for no apparent reason.

In V3 they use vile bright green text for the table headings.

It’s almost like the designer was asked to come up with 5 variants but ran out of ideas so they changed some quite superficial things.

Also how about showing the delivery costs upfront to avoid billshock?

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:51:48 +0000

I don’t fee like getting into so many specifics, but here’s my opinion.

I think #5 will probably be the top choice by participants.

Personally I wouldn’t choose any. A combination of aspects from each would be my choice. I don’t like the tiny remove icon, but I also don’t like the plain text link. I’d prefer a more prominent icon or even a button there. I’d left align the the continue shopping button and right align the checkout and update buttons.

Anyway, no one is here to read my opinion.

I’ve been waiting all day for the answer. When is it coming?

By: Harry Brignull

Harry Brignull — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:44:04 +0000

You’re so right! I’ve amended the post accordingly..

By: Danny Hope

Danny Hope — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:40:17 +0000

You should release the data after the image so that we can put our guesses in the comments