I just came across this interesting new testing approach on the YouTube home page that allows website visitors to opt into a test and also explains what's being tested instead of just randomly allocating people into test groups using the standard a/b/n approach. 

Giving choice to people is usually a good thing but in a testing situation that's kind of new and I'm not sure how I feel about this, what are your thoughts? Using an opt-in approach and explaining the test should generate more buy-in and maybe even unprompted feedback but I wonder what the non-random allocation of test subjects does to the significance of the test results.

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interesting_youtube_testing_ap.zip (963 KB)

We just came across the below new heatmap tool from Attention Wizard which is an interesting variation of more established services and although we're not sure we like their approach we think they're worth mentioning. 

In contrast to tools such as CrazyEgg and ClickTale which are collecting and visualising mouse click and movement data from actual website visitors, Attention Wizard aims to predict where the human eye will move during the first few seconds on a page and where the brains attention will focus. 

To do this, no human subjects are required, instead AttentionWizard uses software algorithms to simulate visual perception and attention. Now we're not sure we'd recommend to use this to analyse websites that are already live (i.e. might as well collect live data), but why not run the tool over mock-ups or draft designs to get an idea of how they would capture attention even before they're put live?

Eye tracking, as used by top enterprises such as Google, uses cameras and specialist software to track where the eyes of internet users land on a webpage. Mouse tracking follows the mouse movements of an internet user to simulate eye movement on a webpage. Over the last few years, mouse tracking has greatly matured, developing features and achieving accuracy that make it a credible alternative to eye tracking.

Heatmaps created using traditional eye tracking (left) and mouse tracking (right)

Research has shown that when both methods of testing are conducted simultaneously, there is an 84%-88% correlation in the results. In addition, both the eye and mouse move to relatively the same rhythm and focus in on the same page content. 

Now you could argue that the above heat maps actually don't really look like they're 80% the same (and I would have to agree) but this is more a case of cost vs. benefit. Eye tracking seems to be more accurate but also much more expensive compared to mouse tracking so maybe mouse tracking could be a good initial first step to inform a potential later eye tracking study.

Read the full article on the ClickTale blog on eye tracking vs. mouse tracking for a list of pros and cons of each method and create a free ClickTale account and generate some heat maps.

We had a pretty interesting presentation from Gomez yesterday on the impact of site performance on overall conversion which is backed up by a Gartner report earlier in the year called E-Commerce Websites: Features That Make Consumers Buy.

Key findings of the Gartner report

• Consumers expect to have detailed and accurate product information 
• Consumer expectations demand good performance from retailer websites
• The Akamai "7 Second Rule", page abandonment spikes after that
• Consumers would like to see more single-page shopping carts
• Consumers' product reviews are becoming a must-have element

According to the report page load speed is the 3rd most important influencing factor. "Historical Akamai research showed consumers abandoned pages if they took longer than seven seconds to load. Delay the presentation of the product information that the consumer is looking for, and you run the risk of losing not only the sale but your customer."

Apart from the performance testing features, we also really liked the cross browser testing and preview functionality as well which allows you to generate JPGs showing how your website looks across various browsers and operasting systems as well as mobile devices. Have a look at the below screen shots for the Datalicious blog to see how the site renders on an iPhone, iPad and Blackberry as well as load times across the various Posterous elements.

Download the full Gartner report on eCommerce Site Features That Make Consumers Buy.

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gomez_performance_impact_conve.zip (1.38 MB)