Previewing Variation for Your A/B Test in VWO

Previewing a variation of your A/B test before it actually starts ensures all the changes you've made are held by the variations. The PREVIEW option provides a convenient way to quickly check and validate your variations without having to dig through the test settings. It typically ensures that your variation does not contain broken links or sections and that it's working as expected for your website visitors.

For example, say you've created a test targeting users from a particular geographical location. In such a scenario, the Previews option allows you to load the test pages just as it will load for the targeted segment of visitors. This helps to stimulate the experience, allowing you to ensure that the test for targeted visitors is implemented correctly.

To preview the variations of your A/B test, perform this:

Procedure

1. Login to your VWO account.
2. Go to TESTING > A/B.
3. From the A/B test dashboard, select the test you want to preview.
4. Go to the PREVIEW tab.
5. From the Variation dropdown, select the variation you want to preview.
6. In the Preview URL field, enter the URL on which you want to preview the changes.
   

   NOTE: If your test is running on multiple pages, you can preview them 
   individually.

7. If you have configured targeting conditions in your campaign, an options to Ignore campaign targeting conditions in previews appear right below the variations dropdown. This option allows you to preview your variations irrespective of the targeting conditions that your campaign targets.
   

   NOTE: By default, this option is enabled. If you wish to preview the 
   variations complying with the targeting conditions, disable this.

8. To preview your variation, click Preview in a new tab.
9. In the preview, a Preview Mode pop-up appears in the lower right corner which displays the information about your test. To view this information, click on the Campaign name in the pop-up.

NOTE: In the preview mode, the variation changes, goals, and other 
variation-specific modifications will be displayed even if the VWO 
Smartcode times-out. Whenever the time-out happens, a warning message 
is displayed in the preview pop-up. To know more, refer to Why Does VWO
Smartcode Time-out and How to Resolve It?

Previewing Screenshots of Your Variation

Using the Screenshot Previews section present in the PREVIEW tab, you can view the screenshots that VWO generated for your test variations. Here, the screenshots of all your variations appear as thumbnails.

To preview the screenshots of your A/B test, perform this:

Procedure

1. Go to the PREVIEW tab, and from the panel on the right click Screenshot Previews.

   NOTE: By default, the Live Previews section is selected.

2. To view a screenshot, hover on the screenshot thumbnail and click VIEW SCREENSHOT.
   
3. On the screenshot that appears, you have the option to view the screenshot of your variations in specific browsers. To do this, select the variation and browser from the respective dropdowns and click Go.
   

   INFO: Alternatively, you can also use the SELECT BROWSERS dropdown 
   present in the top right corner of the Screenshot Previews section to 
   preview your variations in different browsers.

   NOTE: While viewing screenshot for the first time, it may take a few 
   seconds to generate depending on the server load.

Additionally, you can also group your variations based on the Browsers and Variations using the GROUP BY screenshot settings present in the panel on the right.