Five A/B Tests That I Tried Out in Real Life
How do you break monotony in life? Some people will look for an affair (oops..), some try out new food, some people go on a wanderlust trip… I tried to do something different.
For two weeks, I decided to A/B test the mundane parts of my life and actually observe which one made more sense for me.
Disclaimer : This was not a scientific proven way of doing A/B testing and should not be tried at home
So, what is A/B testing?
A/B testing (sometimes called split testing) is comparing two versions of a an activity/object/web-page to see which one performs better.
For more information on this topic, you can refer to this guide.
- Testing out my preference of undergarments
So I tried out this test for a whole one month. This test is basically a multivariate test : I tried out different combinations of preference of undergarments which are listed as below:
- Briefs + Under Shirt
- Briefs + No Under Shirt
- Boxers + Under Shirt
- Boxers + No Under Shirt
- I didn’t go for the the no-underwear option because that’s not how I roll!
Why testing my underwear was important :
It’s actually a very serious matter. After all your future offspring’s lives depends upon it. A serious responsibility, no adult discusses.
What I learnt :
Briefs are your standard, go-to underwear — They kind of get tight sometimes.
Boxers are loose-fitting underwear with more breathability than any other undergarment I have ever worn.
For me, boxers were the clear winner. Lucky me, that I didn’t encounter a problem with my family jewels during the test.
Why testing my ‘Banyan’ was important :
It’s actually a piece of undergarment that is underappreciated by Indian men. The one thing I noticed, when I was not wearing the undershirt, was that it felt much more cooler.
When I did wear the undershirt, my shirt did not drench with sweat! Any single woman reading this, you know I am approachable.
There was no clear winner in this test, so I’ll keep on testing, to see which is the clear winner.
See even our Sallu likes to experiment.
2. Testing out my preference of Facial Hair
After reading this blog post, I decided to give this test a shot.
This was just 2 weeks before Valentine’s Day.
In the first week of the test, I uploaded pictures on Tinder in which I was clean shaven.


In the second week, when I had a full grown beard (it grows fast!), I switched all of them and uploaded a new set of pictures, with beard. And guess what happened?
The results were unbelievable.
A 100% increase in swipes, from 0 to 1 (CTR!). Unfortunately there were no matches (a lot of variables were also at play here — one of them being the number of single women near Valentine’s day.)

3. Testing between Indian and the Western Style
This is not a test between the different way of doing things (that in reality would be a multivariate test), I wanted to test between the different toilet systems. Yes, you read that right.
I live in a government flat in Delhi, so I have access to both.
Indian Style : To be honest, it is a little uncomfortable.
But there are a lot of advantages to it.
When you squat, it is actually healthy for you and helps in the prevention of colon cancer. It also helps in digestion.
Western Style : First and foremost, it is very comfortable.
You can read your newspaper(probably listen to it), when you are doing your business. You can refer to this study and this bollywood film having more information on this test.
For me the surprising result was that I preferred the Indian style over the Western style because it is much more healthier than the Western style.
4. Cash vs Card
“Modi ney Daaru pee rakhi thi uss din” — said the Gujratis.
Yeah, NaMo decided to do DeMo test of our economy, with a ‘clear’ goal in mind to eliminate black money. Or, was it to go digital? Umm, well one of them was definitely primary.
When the demonetisation exercise was on, I decided to monitor my expenses in different weeks. One week, I was using cash and in the other, I was using card. What I observed was that my expenses were less, when I was using cash and more when I was constantly using my debit card.
I think I am still old school and it is easy for me to manage my expenses. And I am going to stick to using cash for managing my expenses.
To our dear Prime Minister, as a marketer at VWO, I wanted to tell you if the hypothesis and the goals are not clear, the tests can end in a bad ‘note’(get it ?).
Compliments for our government — courtesy a common man
5. Chai Vs Coffee

There is a very high probability, that you could be drinking either of the two, while reading this article.
Ever thought of doing a test to find out the one you preferred?
Well I did. I did a test in which in one week I only drank coffee as the preferred beverage with my snacks and in the other week, I drank tea.
Coffee week :
Frappuccino, Cappuccino, Mocha… experimented with different styles. Coffee is addictive- Proved to be true for this week.
Tea Week :
In the second week, I only had tea as the preferred beverage for my snacks. And I decided to stick with Green Tea. I realised that green tea helped me to lose weight.
It’s funny how none of us realise which one is better for us.
In my case, I still haven’t been able to find out the winner but there is definitely a loser, and it’s not me —
Aye Chotu, ek cup ____ laa dey!
Takeaway
I enjoyed testing these 5 elements of my mundane life and I hope after reading these you also decide to test some of the mundane elements of your life. A classic example that comes to mind is going to office: You can test either going by car or by metro. Do share in the comments the tests that you would like to do in your life.
We all get only one life so let’s live to the fullest.
