Groundhog Day (the movie) & A/B Testing...HUH?

Groundhog Day, or, the Problem with A/B Testing by Jeff Atwood

OK, I had to read the article before I got it either. Given my very amature standing with this 'testing' thing, I found it enlightening. This is how Atwood connects the two, "There's something delightfully Ouroboros about the epiphanies and layered revelations in repeated viewings of a movie that is itself about (nearly) endless repetition." And, where he goes is well, very cool!

I hope everyone reading this has seen the movie. If not, heed the spoiler alert! I will disclose how it ends and pretty much what happens in the whole movie...beginning....NOW!

Phil keeps going on these dates with Rita making mental notes as he goes along. His aim is to be what she wants, someone she thinks likes everything she does, always seems to know what she wants, etc. But, what is happening is a farce because it isn't real. Let's take this statement into the world of A/B testing.

What Atwood is saying is that A/B testing would have to go on forever to reach that perfect moment. The 'word' is that the span of Phil's Groundhog Day experience lasts 30-40 years. Don't think we have that kind of time, do we.

I also agree with his conclusions that A/B testing lacks feeling, it is empty and is dishonest. I agree because if you keep asking the same questions, tracking the answers, the questions will eventually be written to draw the desired answers. The key is to avoid such manipulation but Atwood doesn't cover that in this article. I am going to look for one that does.

Welcome to Summer 2010 Usability!!!

This quarter we are focusing on the usability and the experience that goes with it. In my initial reading, it occurs to me that a usability study can be very similar to a marketing survey in that you need a target, marketing tasks, goals & objectives (an objective can be to find problems) and provide projections. The usability test contains these aspects but uses different means of obtaining results.