A/B Testing: Is responsive design worth the investment?

Is responsive design worth the investment?

It depends on whom you ask.

You can ask the experts, receive a variety of replies and hopefully draw some conclusions from their answers. Or, you can look to your customer data for insights through a little testing and optimization.

During a recent Web clinic, Austin McCraw, Senior Director, Content Production, and Jon Powell, Senior Executive Content Writer, both of MECLABS, revealed how marketers at a news media organization decided to forego relying on expert opinions and put responsive design to the test.

First, let’s review the research notes for some background information on the test.

Background: A large news media organization trying to determine whether it should invest in responsive mobile design.

Goal: To significantly increase the number of free trial sign-ups.

Primary Research Question: Which design will generate the highest rate of free trial sign-ups?

Approach: A/B multifactor split test

Here’s a screenshot depicting both design approaches as they render responsively and unresponsively on desktop, tablet and mobile devices.

Results 

What you need to know

The responsive design treatment showed an aggregated statistically significant difference in free trial subscriptions when compared to the control.

To learn more about why the responsive design outperformed the unresponsive, watch the free on-demand Web clinic replay of “Responsive Design Tested” to see the results of the experiment when Austin and Jon unpack the test beyond the aggregate level.

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