An Example of Experimental Design

Question: Does changing the text on your website improve donations?

Experiment:

1. Randomly show visitors one version or the other
2. Measure how much they donate
3. Determine which is better

This turns out an inference analysis.

The making of the experimental steps is also called “formulating your question”. Here “formulate” means “to put into a systematized statement or expression”. In contrast, a good experiment must generalize to the problem you care about.