A Beautiful Thing: A/B Testing

I paid for a page of artwork I may not use. However, that is not to say that the extra effort was wasted. I gained additional insight from it.

I originally wanted last page of Pretty Vacant: London Calling to dovetail into the opening splash page for the sequel, but Daniel wanted to draw the Page 2 differently. His second effort was good, but it didn’t change my mind about going with the first image. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go with my subjective eye candy test. In true analytical fashion I subjected the two drawings of the same page to A/B testing.

The two choices for Pretty Vacant: London Calling 2 Page 2

A/B testing is a simple way to test changes to your new design against the current page to determine which one produced the best result. I showed both versions of Page 2 to my Kickstarter backers and my Facebook friends to let them decide the victor.

The results validated my first impression. Image A won on Kickstarter 4-3, and on Facebook 2-1. Not only were there votes, there were reasons behind their votes! Those who chose A liked Gigi’s face, the visuals and the image’s impact while those who sided with B liked the antagonist’s reactions and the image’s spacing. And then there’s my friend Rachel, who always chooses B in these tests!

The majority feels the way I do about the images: B is good, but not good enough to supplant A. Great opening splash pages bring the reader right into the action, providing the title and creative information in the process. Image A does that for Page 2 of Pretty Vacant: London Calling 2.

Which is the beauty of A/B testing: it provides the numbers behind the feeling!