Quick A/B Testing

Typically the user testing of an existing digital service is used to identify the problems in the current user experience and inspire the redesign of certain pages, flows or features. This process can take sometime, and we have to admit that certain criticalities can already be identified with an expert review or heuristic analysis upfront. How can we make sure to optimize time and energy, and combine user and expert review at once?

Without waiting the user test to discover more about existing issues, the expert can analyse in depth the existing website and identify most of the critical aspects. They can also start hypothesising how to solve those issues, building and prototyping alternative solutions and getting ready to show those alternatives to the users. The test can be conducted as a normal user testing, and then show the alternative flows with the new design to see if it's solving the issues emerged during the testing. This turns the test into a sort of A/B Testing that relies on the existing website to map the user experience and pain points, and on the alternative mock-ups to check whether each issue has been solved or not.

The advantage for the team is to leave the testing with both a list of required fixes and needs, as well as an initial validation of a prototype that is already addressing some of the issues, and would only require a simple iteration to be ready for implementation.

The quick A/B testing could be explored as a way to engage users in a light way during design sprints, and gain help in defining both macro and micro interactions.