Usability testing
Severity One outage - on a golf course??!!
Submitted by Erik Petersen on Sun, 06/12/2009 - 09:39. acceptance testing | events | metaphors | usability testingI never really realized the parallels between software development and golf course layout. Both have a technical component, and a reliance on usability. The Australian (Golf) Open moves from city to city each year, and has a hiccup every so often. This year they had a five hour outage.
How do you get an outage in golf? While not in the infamous class , this years competition was held at a cliff top course in Sydney overlooking the ocean. Spectacular but windy. A savage wind blowing balls the width of the green had players blowing par just with their putters. A 5.5 hour delay to play was called by which time the wind speed had halved. The outage confused the local players who said those conditions were typical and just “par for the course”. The greens were all very fast, 10.5 based on their stimpometer score, much higher than the 8 recommended by some players before the tournament started. While the golf club staff ignored the advice, they had tried to slow 4 of the faster holes. The rest of the tournament was played sucessfully in windy conditions that kept the flags taut but didn’t move the balls.
CAST 2009 Early Bird Rates Extended until May 1
Submitted by sbarber on Thu, 16/04/2009 - 06:42. books | context-driven testing | events | functional testing | general software testing | industry recognition | metaphors | non-functional testing | other online resources | people issues | perspectives | project management | test analysis | test management | usability testing
The 4th Annual Conference of the Association of Software Testing (CAST) 2009
Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 13-16, 2009
Serving Our Stakeholders
Opening Keynote by: Dr. Jonathan Koomey
Closing Keynote by: Robert Sabourin & Tim Coulter
Invited Speakers: Mike Dwyer and Kevin Brennan
CAST 2009 Early Bird Rates Extended until May 1
Submitted by sbarber on Thu, 16/04/2009 - 06:36. books | context-driven testing | events | functional testing | general software testing | industry recognition | metaphors | non-functional testing | other online resources | people issues | perspectives | project management | test analysis | test management | usability testing
The 4th Annual Conference of the Association of Software Testing (CAST) 2009
Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 13-16, 2009
Serving Our Stakeholders
Opening Keynote by: Dr. Jonathan Koomey
Closing Keynote by: Robert Sabourin & Tim Coulter
Invited Speakers: Mike Dwyer and Kevin Brennan
Usable = “used to”? How about progress?
Submitted by Ainars Galvans on Fri, 11/01/2008 - 16:24. usability testing...I’m used to manual transmission, however I agree that automatic transmission is somewhat more useful, but I’m simply used to manual one.
"Used to" is the most accepted oracle for usability testing. If the application seems a lot like any Microsoft application, then it’s usable (despite perhaps they hate Microsoft …). Now, in 2007 Microsoft did a bad thing – changed what we get used to during last 15 years.
"Used to" is the most accepted oracle for usability testing. If the application seems a lot like any Microsoft application, then it’s usable (despite perhaps they hate Microsoft …). Now, in 2007 Microsoft did a bad thing – changed what we get used to during last 15 years.
Claims testing in New York taxis
Submitted by Erik Petersen on Sat, 29/12/2007 - 12:52. perspectives | security testing | usability testingBack in 2001, I was lucky enough to be visiting James Bach’s Satisfice lab for the WHET 2 workshop. The night before, I was talking to James and Cem Kaner, when James showed us the box that some software came in and asked how we would test it. We both responded that we would read the claims on the box and attempt to verify those. I think this was the first time I heard the term “claims testing”. It was during this visit that I also saw an in car GPS system for the first time, in a car full of testers suggesting various tests involving potentially dangerous driving!
I hope no one tries to test some recent claims by a vendor of technology for New York City taxis. They now have GPS installed, as well as some other extras. It seems someone went for a taxi ride recently, found a PC screen mounted on the seat back, clicked past an error message, and did some mischief. They then blogged about it, then it was picked up in the media (via a comment on the blog post). Of course the technology company had to respond, both with a blog comment and to the media. The claims of the technology company include such gems as “ There are extensive contract-required security protocols in place, which have exceeded government and credit card industry standards and have been stringently tested by our internal and external security experts, which fully prevent access to anything other than media content files residing in the taxicab itself. There is no potential for any malicious activity,”.
Should have tested that - supersized iphone bills
Submitted by Erik Petersen on Sat, 25/08/2007 - 11:30. functional testing | perspectives | usability testing[textile]
The media (including the New York Times where I noticed this) is reporting that people's first iphone bills from AT&T are huge, not in cost but in weight. Paper bills for telephone services have grown in the last few years. Technology allows each call to be tracked and included in a bill, so the summary bill of several years ago has typically grown to 5-10 pages listing all the numbers called. The iphone bills have been up to 50 pages, even 300 double-sided pages in one case (but this woman apparently sent 30,000 text messages in a month! Huh? Was this a publicity stunt or some other oddity? She posted the video of her bill to the net and allegedly got several million viewers)
The media (including the New York Times where I noticed this) is reporting that people's first iphone bills from AT&T are huge, not in cost but in weight. Paper bills for telephone services have grown in the last few years. Technology allows each call to be tracked and included in a bill, so the summary bill of several years ago has typically grown to 5-10 pages listing all the numbers called. The iphone bills have been up to 50 pages, even 300 double-sided pages in one case (but this woman apparently sent 30,000 text messages in a month! Huh? Was this a publicity stunt or some other oddity? She posted the video of her bill to the net and allegedly got several million viewers)
Bert, Batman, Barbie and Process by Policy
Submitted by Erik Petersen on Wed, 15/08/2007 - 02:37. people issues | perspectives | usability testingIn some areas, quality is not negotiable, particularly anything to do with human safety, especially children. You may have read recently that Mattel has had two toy recalls this month. MSNBC quoted Robert Eckert, Mattel's chairman and chief executive, saying the company had "rigorous procedures" during the initial worldwide recall of toys containing lead paint (including many toys for young children like Sesame Street). He added that Mattel would be "vigilant and unforgiving in enforcing quality and safety". He didn’t mention his cash bonus of 2.5 million in fiscal 2006. As David Phillips on seeking alpha.com observes, “Maybe aligning cash incentive compensation to quality assurance will serve as a needed incentive to manufacture non-toxic toys.”
Software Testing Lessons from my Children
Submitted by sbarber on Mon, 18/06/2007 - 19:19. context-driven testing | functional testing | general software testing | heuristics | metaphors | non-functional testing | other online resources | performance testing | perspectives | usability testing- My most recent column has just been posted on TechTarget in which I discuss some of the lessons I‘ve learned from my children about software testing.
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- I had planned an entirely different topic for this month, but I‘m sitting down to write this on Father‘s Day while my sons (Nicholas, age 8, and Taylor, age 4) are napping, and realizing that I‘ve never written about what I have learned about testing from my boys.