Preference Testing: Is it important? Which came first, the preference test or the AB test?
An Ultimate Guide: Some things you need to know about preference testing.
Preference Testing In User Experience (UX) Design for UX Designers.
Preference Testing. What is it? Is it the same as A/B Testing? I have been working as a UX Designer for years. Toward the beginning of my career I would hear the term a/b test or preference test used interchangeably. I just had to know, what exactly is preference testing. In this article that is what I will be focusing on. I will have a/b testing covered in another article.
Preference Testing: Let's Break It Down
From my understanding and based off of articles that I have read, preference testing involves sharing multiple designs with users. You would then ask those users about their preference. I don't mean, "Which do you prefer", but also asking "why" the user preferred the design of their choosing.
Why Are Preference Test So Important?
Think about it. You get to obtain insight on likes and dislikes in regards to your design. This will allow you to understand how the users feel about the overall design without having to spend a bunch of coin on design and development!
What's The Difference Between PreferenceTesting and AB Testing?
Preference testing would be used in low fidelity prototyping, wire framing and/or even sketches. You would do this early in the process to know what the users prefer and why.
A/B testing on the other hand would come later in the design process when you have a live design (interactive prototype). This would give you data on how the users would interact withe the design.
All in all preference testing would be utilized early in the the design process and a/b testing would come later in the design process. Preference focuses on, you guessed it, "preference" along with likes and dislikes while a/b testing would focus on the interaction of the design. Preference should be locked down prior to interaction if correctly implemented.