General: Navigation Structure Test
Hypothesis
If we test a similar change on our any pages as rejected, we should be cautious
Test Results
Key Learning
Problem: The primary call-to-action on the general isn't converting at its potential — design, copy, or placement may be the bottleneck.
What was tried: rejected this UI change (Oct 16, 2019). Rejection suggests the change underperformed the control
Why it failed: Navigation changes are risky because they disrupt established muscle memory. Test with new visitors separately.
How to Apply This to Your Site
This test showed that general: navigation structure test hurt conversions. The change was tested on a landing page page in the travel industry. Avoid replicating this exact approach — instead, consider testing the opposite direction or a more subtle variation.
Before you test: Consider that navigation tests typically require adequate traffic to reach statistical significance. Run your test for at least 2 full business cycles to account for weekly traffic patterns.
What Was Tested
Booking ran a sitewide experiment where they tested two types of breadcrumb navigation. The contending variation showed a breadcrumb with two dimensions: displaying the geographical hierarchy of how deep someone is within the site (as expected), and also displaying a menu (on-click) with a secondary dimension of stay types for each level. It might have seemed like a nice idea but it didn't cut it. As the a/b test completed, the idea was rejected in favor of the old-school breadcrumb approach. Nice try booking. :)
Methodology
Build On These Learnings
Save your own experiments, spot winning patterns across your test history, and stop repeating what's already been tried.
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