5 ms·

Bringing A/B Testing To The Fortune 5 Million

24 points by mattyb 17y ago

patio11 17y ago
Clickable link to the startup I'm discussing in this blog post: http://www.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com http://www.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com For my full opinions, see the blog post. I think most HNers would be better served by the best A/B testing library available for your platform of choice, but if your Aunt Cindy runs a business with a website, then Visual Website Optimizer will let her A/B test it without having to spend a few years in learning to speak geek first.
- brm 17y ago
  hmm I've seen that design somewhere before... Oh yeah: http://basecamphq.com http://basecamphq.com . At least they uploaded the background images to their own server and didn't direct link them
  - mccon104 17y ago
    hmm i've seen that statement somewhere before... oh yeah: the end of second paragraph under "Why I'm Particularly Impressed With This"
  - patio11 17y ago
    I mentioned in my blog post: I have to say one thing, though, and it is straight out of the Economic History of Japan playbook: people don’t take copiers seriously, and it is a hard impression to shake once you’ve gotten it attached to you, fairly or otherwise. The design “inspired by” Basecamp is… ahem… well, suffice it to say that it does not demonstrate nearly as much originality as the software does. I’d hate for folks to write this startup off just for that, but first impressions matter. Rather than taking (deserved) lumps for flying the Jolly Roger, I’d suggest folks to either use an open source web design, one of the attractive reasonably priced templates the Internet is overflowing with, or hire somebody with design skills to bang out something decent for v1.0.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- quellhorst 17y ago
  What do you think is the best A/B testing for rails?
  - Timothee 17y ago
    His. ;-) http://www.bingocardcreator.com/abingo/compare http://www.bingocardcreator.com/abingo/compare (personally I have no opinion on the matter)
spking 17y ago
The wholesale ripoff of the Basecamp UI is just unforgivable. I can't believe they thought they'd get away with that.
- Timothee 17y ago
  It does say "Design inspiration: Basecamp" at the bottom, but at this point, is not called inspiration anymore. When you actually use the exact images used in the original, it's definitely either "ripoff" or "theft".
  - josefresco 17y ago
    What images were re-used?
    - mattyb 17y ago
      http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/images/texture.png http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/images/texture.png http://basecamphq.com/images/texture.png http://basecamphq.com/images/texture.png $ cmp -l bc_texture.png vwo_texture.png $

24 points by mattyb 17y ago

Clickable link to the startup I'm discussing in this blog post: http://www.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com http://www.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com For my full opinions, see the blog post. I think most HNers would be better served by the best A/B testing library available for your platform of choice, but if your Aunt Cindy runs a business with a website, then Visual Website Optimizer will let her A/B test it without having to spend a few years in learning to speak geek first.

brm 17y ago
hmm I've seen that design somewhere before... Oh yeah: http://basecamphq.com http://basecamphq.com . At least they uploaded the background images to their own server and didn't direct link them
- mccon104 17y ago
  hmm i've seen that statement somewhere before... oh yeah: the end of second paragraph under "Why I'm Particularly Impressed With This"
- patio11 17y ago
  I mentioned in my blog post: I have to say one thing, though, and it is straight out of the Economic History of Japan playbook: people don’t take copiers seriously, and it is a hard impression to shake once you’ve gotten it attached to you, fairly or otherwise. The design “inspired by” Basecamp is… ahem… well, suffice it to say that it does not demonstrate nearly as much originality as the software does. I’d hate for folks to write this startup off just for that, but first impressions matter. Rather than taking (deserved) lumps for flying the Jolly Roger, I’d suggest folks to either use an open source web design, one of the attractive reasonably priced templates the Internet is overflowing with, or hire somebody with design skills to bang out something decent for v1.0.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
quellhorst 17y ago
What do you think is the best A/B testing for rails?
- Timothee 17y ago
  His. ;-) http://www.bingocardcreator.com/abingo/compare http://www.bingocardcreator.com/abingo/compare (personally I have no opinion on the matter)

spking 17y ago

The wholesale ripoff of the Basecamp UI is just unforgivable. I can't believe they thought they'd get away with that.

Timothee 17y ago
It does say "Design inspiration: Basecamp" at the bottom, but at this point, is not called inspiration anymore. When you actually use the exact images used in the original, it's definitely either "ripoff" or "theft".
- josefresco 17y ago
  What images were re-used?
  - mattyb 17y ago
    http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/images/texture.png http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/images/texture.png http://basecamphq.com/images/texture.png http://basecamphq.com/images/texture.png $ cmp -l bc_texture.png vwo_texture.png $