My weirdest A/B test blew everyone's mind 🧪

Anthony Sunderland

Mar 19 • Affiliate Marketing

One blurry background = 94% more conversions (here's the exact test)

Credit: Tom Orbach

Here’s one of the strangest A/B tests I’ve ever run:

Put a blurred product screenshot behind your sign-up form.

That’s it. That’s the marketing idea.

When I was at privacy startup MineOS, our form completion rates jumped by 25% after replacing the default background with this beauty:

(Anthony's note: if you click the link above you'll see his clever trick😸)

Even though the dashboard screenshot was filled with dummy data (no personalization at all), visitors couldn’t tell it was fake—and they couldn’t resist wanting to get past that form to see what awaited them.

It made visitors want to see more → and increased our conversion rates.

It converted 25% better than our old original version:

Why this psychological trick works so well

The blurred background creates 3 powerful effects:

It triggers curiosity gaps - Our brains hate incomplete information. When we see something partially hidden, we’re wired to want to complete the picture.
It creates a progress illusion - Users feel like they’ve already made it inside your product and just need to complete “one final step” to unlock the full experience.
It builds trust through previewing - Even blurred, the screenshot reassures visitors about what they’re signing up for. This helps with reducing uncertainty that often leads to abandonment.

Real-world validation beyond my test

This isn’t just my experience!

Other companies have seen even more dramatic results.

GRIN saw a 39% increase in conversions thanks to the blurred product UI:

MyCase saw a 94% increase in conversions (!!) thanks to this redesign:

h/t Spiralyze for running the above 2 experiments

2 comments