Question

A web page design firm has two designs for an online hardware store. To determine which is the more effective design, the firm uses one page in the Oakland area and a second page in the Miami area. For each visit, the firm records the visitor's rating on the layout and the amount of time visiting the site. Complete parts (a) through (c) below.

Required:
a. What is the explanatory variable in this study?
b. What are the two response variables?
c. Explain how confounding might be an issue with this study.

Answer 1

Explanatory variable : web page design

Response variables : Visitor's rating and amount of time visiting the site.

Kindly check explanation for the rest.

Step-by-step explanation:

The explanatory variable simply means the independent or predictor variable which is used to bring about a change in the dependent or predicted variable. The explanatory variable in the scenario above is the web page design which is used to measure the behavior and changes in the response variable which are the rating given by visitors and the number of visits on each of the two different web page designs available (explanatory variable).

The confounding factor which may affect the study is the different area assigned to test the effectiveness of each page ; designating one page for the Oakland area and the other for Miami. User preferences for each area may itself mask the actual outcome of the experiment.