"Watch Out for One-Sided Non-Compliance in A/B Testing"

One-Sided Non-Compliance

One-sided non-compliance occurs when a participant in an A/B test only interacts with one version of the test, either intentionally or unintentionally. This can happen if the participant only sees one version of the test due to technical issues, or if they actively avoid interacting with one of the versions.

Impact on Web Impact on Mobile
On the web, one-sided non-compliance can skew the results of an A/B test by making it difficult to determine if the differences in performance between the two versions are due to the changes being tested or due to the fact that one version was seen by more participants. This can lead to inaccurate conclusions and potentially costly decisions based on flawed data. On mobile, one-sided non-compliance can have a similar impact on A/B testing. However, it can be even more difficult to detect and account for due to the wide range of devices and operating systems in use. Additionally, mobile users may be more likely to experience technical issues that prevent them from seeing or interacting with one version of the test, further complicating the analysis of results.