
How we test fake sites on live traffic - jaf12duke
http://blog.42floors.com/we-test-fake-versions-of-our-site
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josefresco
A theory on why the "ugly banking site" did so well. Out of all of the
designs, that was the most traditional, and probably most "comfortable" to the
user. The site to me feels like it has depth, and it's friendly to the user,
encouraging them to explore. The others while more effective (conversion rate)
felt like they were engineered to spoon feed me just the right data, and
didn't feel like "complete" sites open to browsing.

This of course is all anecdotal based on my years of being a web geek but
sometimes the "feel" of the design speaks volumes where data and raw number
crunching cannot.

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stevesearer
I love that Ugly Banking site is clearly based on US Bank's website, which was
actually redesigned in the last 12 months.

[https://www.usbank.com/](https://www.usbank.com/)

~~~
namenotrequired
It looks no more like that one than most other bank websites I've seen :)

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bullseye
> The winning variation was Google Hover Clone

I was enjoying the article, but feel like it just abruptly ended. Why was the
clone the winner? I would have loved to hear more about your process for
judging the successful mockup.

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fat0wl
Bump.... if Ugly Banking Site had lowest bounce rate why wasn't it the
"winner"? If you're just looking at a static page what else is judged other
than bounce rate? If you're measuring conversions, isn't most of that
influenced by the existing site? Or do you attribute it to some lasting
impression based on how the site was entered? Glad Ugly Banking Site didn't
win, but I am curious about the critical metrics.

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frogpelt
Fewer bounces doesn't mean more conversions. The winning site might have
generated the most tours of office space but the Ugly Banking Site may have
generated more overall page views.

That's what I got from it.

~~~
fat0wl
I understand & agree, but my point was that conversions would still be
accomplished from the existing site, just entered via a static landing page.
The conversions weren't coming from the static page, it was just an entryway
into the existing site.

Enter = no bounce, Exit = bounce

Correlating stats collected once they leave (click anything) with these static
pages is a bit less scientific, so I was interested in hearing the logic.

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lukethomas
I really enjoyed this article - the one question I have is if the "winner" has
been rolled out to the masses (not only the SEM channel.) I'm a little scared
for you guys because the test results show that the design works well for
visitors from SEM, not necessarily from other channels. Have you tested this
on traffic from other channels (organic, referral, etc)?

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jdmitch
How long did you have the fake sites up? I would have thought you couldn't
leave them up for very long before frustrating users, but it seems like you
would need a good chunk of data before you would know it was statistically
significant. Or did you also have some sort of disclaimer for those users so
they knew it was a beta test?

~~~
darrennix
We left the fake sites up for 3 weeks. The parts of the design that required a
DB connection, like sorting, pagination, contacting a listing, would just
redirect to the matching operation on the live site on click.

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chenster
The keyword is "Fake". The static HTML5 websites take much less time to
produce thus reduce programming costs and shortens precious time-to-lauch.

In a nutshell: Moqups > PSD > PSD2HTML + Static data > Fake sites

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gmjoe
Getting user feedback on fake stuff is great. Tim Ferris didn't know what to
call the book that turned out to be _The 4 Hour Workweek_ , so he spent money
on AdWords to see which title more people clicked on. [1]

[1] [http://futureperfectpublishing.com/2009/01/23/the-sticky-
goo...](http://futureperfectpublishing.com/2009/01/23/the-sticky-goodness-of-
testing-book-titles-with-google-adwords/)

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thatthatis
Hover clone was the only one that put the locations on a map. This test seems
to, more than anything else, have proven that when searching for office space
_exact_ location is one of the primary criteria.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if "just show me where it is on a map" is a
feature most commercial real-estate search sites are missing.

~~~
darrennix
This explanation does not address the fact that all three of the original
designs had a heavy map emphasis including the ability in Unified View to make
the map full screen. Keep in mind that the split test was 9-way in that each
variation had to outperform the control. I think hover1 outperformed all
versions because it gives the ability to quickly process massive amounts of
data without clicking or changing pages.

~~~
thatthatis
The ability to make the map full screen != a large easy to use map and
definitely != ability to see exact location.

What percent of users clicked to make the map full screen?

"The ability to quickly process massive amounts of data without clicking or
changing pages" sounds like it may be a good design mantra for your business.

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trustfundbaby
You should really consider changing the title to something a bit more
descriptive. Its a very good article about strategies for A/B testing design
ideas, but I didn't get that from the title, and would it skipped it if not
for the fact that I really enjoy 42floors blog posts.

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richardv
Looking at a listing[1], I notice that you provide email addresses to users
and presumably act like a craiglists for anonymous messaging...

I'm just curious though, don't you find that you get spammed out if you do
this?

I think providing email addresses to users on a marketplace is a great way of
keeping discussions/messages boxed up in your platform, but showing the emails
on the site must result in way too many spam emails?

[1] : [http://42floors.com/ny/new-york/25-w-39th-
st/3171](http://42floors.com/ny/new-york/25-w-39th-st/3171)

~~~
darrennix
We used to expose the raw email address of the underlying user. Now it's a
two-way email proxy, which is why the domain is "Floors.me" e.g.
rich.farmey.31719@42floors.me

We do get spammed but we've been able to keep a handle on it. Mailgun's
filters capture most of the spam and we have backup handlers in place to
address the rest.

~~~
underwater
Do users know who they're emailing with the anonymous addresses? The
username@42floors.me address may look like they have to communicate via
42floors (meaning more friction) instead of directly with the manager.
Craigslist emails are more obviously throw aways.

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calbear81
The hovering map seems to be behaving oddly (Chrome/Mac OS) for me and blocks
off a large section of the top left with a beige colored background when I
click on "More Map".

Otherwise, very surprising to me that this was the winner. Did you see similar
results across all browsers and form factors (especially interested in desktop
vs. tablet).

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EvanL
Very interesting, thanks for sharing! What specific actions did you measure to
determine a winner?

 _Noticed you answered the question above._ *Was just clawing my eyes out
browsing craigslist for NYC spaces, remember hearing about you guys a little
while back, thanks for refreshing my memory ;)

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level09
I kinda liked the map more. I thought moving to this new hover layout was a
business decision (e.g: get some clients to pay for being featured on top of
the list as the map makes all listings have equal look/chance to be
discovered). apparently you were just A/B testing.

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inthewoods
I'm not affiliated with the company, but Visual Website Optimizer offers the
ability to do A/B tests between different URLs - rather than just variations
within a page (which it also does).

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makmanalp
So didn't users get pissed when they landed on the fake site?

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dangerlibrary
Real data, just pre-populated. Not live. Cached, for weeks.

You'd never know unless you tried to book and were told the space was already
taken.

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agoandanon
The hover version exposed the most information in a usable and visually-
understandable format. I am not surprised.

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bentoner
Did you conclude this before reading the answer?

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johngrefe
What is this gem called? I've seen it on boatbound and MyTime, now on
42floors. Same Rails based layout.

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pax
what did it mean 'fake'? Weren't all 8 fully working versions of the website?

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robmcm
Isn't there a worry that "fake" sights would damage your reputation?

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wikwocket
This reminds me of the worry of the potential A/B tester: won't my users get
confused if they see site A from one web browser/computer, but site B from
another?

I think this is just a self-defeating worry, though. Most people won't know or
care about your site or brand, or remember you from one session to another. If
they don't like your page, they'll just click the back button. If they do get
upset, well, the internet is effectively a pool of infinitely more people who
can click your adwords.

So exercise caution when changing big features used by paying customers, but
don't be afraid to experiment and show things to random visitors.

