Study Interactions Using The Taguchi Method

A rarely discussed and utilized property of the Taguchi Method is the study of interactions. Dr. Taguchi incorporated additional power in the use of orthogonal arrays for test design via the linear graph. Using these linear graphs it is possible to assign factors to the correct columns in order to study interactions between the factors while also revealing the effects of the individual factors.

Although it is not possible to study all interactions as can be done with the full factorial test, you can use your knowledge of Read more

If They Say This About Taguchi Testing Then Run Don’t Walk Away

OK, that title got your attention! What I am talking about? Well, some people promoting Taguchi methods of testing suggest that you can eliminate under performing test runs during the test. Here is a quote from the guy that runs StomperNet’s test software:

Lets say you are running a L18 — this has 18 different landing page recipies. While the test is running you will naturally see a couple of recipies that are doing significantly worse than the others. As this happens you can shut off these recipies. You can keep doing this until you are down to two recipies — i.e. - a split test which will confirm the results from the teguchi test.

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Why Use Taguchi Methods?

“Why use Taguchi methods?” - that is the first question most people ask when told about our software. The short answer is it allows you to quickly optimize your website conversion. That may be all you need to know, but I’m going to give a much more detailed answer.

The Taguchi method was developed by Dr. Genichi Taguchi. After World War II he was employed by the Japanese Ministry of Public Health and Welfare to work on the first national study of health and nutrition. This work led him to Morinaga Pharmaceutcal  where he explored efficient Read more

Regarding Website Optimization Software

The solution you choose will depend on the volume of traffic you have. Taguchi type methods are based on what is called a fractional factorial test and use statistical techniques to reduce the volume of traffic to get a significant test. The Google Website Optimizer is based on a full factorial test and will require much more traffic to get a significant result.

Let’s say you have 15 factors with 2 variation per factor. Using Taguchi based methods you have 18 page variations in the test. Using GWO (full factorial) you have 32,768 pages to test. To get a valid test Read more

Define Interactions And Start The Test

Some people have suggested that testing of interactions cannot be done using the Taguchi Method. That is simply incorrect and demonstrates a lack of understanding. Taguchi developed his arrays specifically to allow for interaction testing. Our software uses the full power of the Taguchi Method.

On the start test page, you can define the factor interactions you would like the software to test. If you do not specify these, the software will still evaluate interactions based on the array it picks.

Notice I said, “It picks.” You do not have to know anything about the mathematics of the Taguchi Method in order to use the software. The software does the picking of the array and all the factor assignments to the array in the background. It will do this based on the interactions you specify.

Did you notice how easy it was to start the test? Just click the Start Test button and it starts. There was no cutting and pasting of code.