Roman Rudnik wrote an article of how to complete an A/B testing at Google Play together with the client and what results you can eventually get. How to understand, which design will give the maximum quantity of uploads? Even a professional specialist won’t be able to give an answer. However, there is one way, which will solve this problem.
You can order icon’s design with an A/B testing. Go on reading if you want to know how it works and how we have increased app’s downloads by 34%.
First, look at these examples:
How do you think, which icon has brought its app the biggest number uploads, when completing an A/B test?You will find out the answer at the end of our article.
How it all began
The point of ‘Piano Master 2’ is that you need to press piano’s keys on the screen at the time, when blocks fall on these keys. In such a way, you play a chosen melody. It is not only a simple game; it is a great way for users, who want to play the piano professionally.
At first, this app was one of the kind but it has a huge number of competitors on the current market. That is why a client came to us with a task to complete a brand new icon for the app to help it stand out from the rest.
Here is how it looked like back then:
The client had filled in the details and we agreed to make three samples of unique icons to complete A/B testing at Google Play.
Client’s requests
The first icon should be more serious and classical: to depict piano keys in 2D with notes, falling onto them. Others two should be more abstract, dynamic and bright. As an example, the client attached a following picture:
At least one of the variants should contain stars, similar to those, which are used in the app during the gaming process.
Work progress
Three days after the prepayment, the customer received six sketches:
First sketches
The client approved images number 5,4 and 1, named in priority. The only thing that troubled him was the green theme, resembling the one in the app. He asked to make the green line as small, as possible.
After slight changes, the sketches started looking this way:
Three variants of sketches after customer's changes
The next doubt was that there was a word ‘Free’ on one icon. He explained that he did not see the need for its use in design, as earlier there were two game versions: a chargeable and a free one. Now, when the only version of the app was free , it wasn’t necessary to use the word ‘free’.
We agreed on the design and proceeded with creating all the icons in color:
Three final variants for A/B testing.
First A/B test – selecting the best design
Even before testing we had doubts that it is not fair to complete the testing of a ‘Free’ icon along with icons without this inscription, as users might think that this app is chargeable and refuse to upload it. We offered the client to remove the lettering from the previous icon or add it to the current ones for a better result.
Results and conclusions
It was surprising that the winning icon was the green one, without a ‘Free’ inscription. That is the right answer to our question from the beginning of the article.
The icon with the ‘Free’ lettering on it took the last place. Interesting observations and conclusions:
— Icon’s design influences the number of users, who will install your app;
— The final icon managed to increase the downloads by 9,6% - 34% comparing to the old one;
— The icon, which the customer liked less of all, turned out to be the most successful;
— Conversion difference of the best and the worst icons reached four times for borderline cases. By choosing an icon according to personal tastes, the client could get only the fourth part of the results, which were achieved by the best icon;
— Green color, which the client wanted to remove at the beginning, became the winner among three color options;
— The lettering ‘Free’ didn’t increase the number of uploads in none of the cases.
Until now, the "Piano Master 2" icon bears the design, created by our company. You can see for yourself how accurately our design conveys the idea of the game by clicking this link.
A / B test is a great opportunity to check the efficiency of the icon and choose the best color option. If you are making an Android application, be sure to use this technique.
Results of this project proved that design can influence the number of downloads and how design solutions and color influence the desire of users to upload the game. Make your conclusions, and if you want to achieve maximum effect in design, order icons with A / B testing.
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