04 4 / 2008
User Interface Guidelines [primers/interfaces/QA]
User interfaces have evolved, and as they evolve, the user’s experience has evolved with it. The proof of that evolution could be found in the fact that I don’t carry an abacus in my back pocket. From the simple to the most complex, interfaces should follow a standard that benefit both the technological need, and the founding principle of usability.
Black box functional testing, and user acceptance tests can identify the issues of interface design that impact the usability of an application, but how far can a tester really test the interface? Should accessibility tests be added to the master test plan? As more and more companies establish their global presence, should localization and cultural details be included in the scope of the test plan? Are testers who think this way muzzled from speaking on these potential test areas in the development process? Is this not a step in the evolution of development?
Early in my testing career, I was given a copy of Alan Cooper’s About Face, which encouraged me to look beyond the aesthetics of an interface, and focus on the potential areas that could fail usability, but also consider some of the items I listed above. Outside of Alan Cooper’s book, I recently received a link to Apple’s online guide to user interfaces.
Speaking of companies that have evolved, Apple has delivered paradigm shifts in the way we physically interact with interfaces (the iPhone), to improving on the “ease of use factor” (the iPod Shuffle). With that background, and a history for shaking things up a bit, I devoured the guide from Apple just to see what good it could bring to my QA frame of mind. There was so much to cover, but here are some of the areas that I highly recommend my fellow QA testers review.
To get you off to a great start with the Apple guideline, you can begin with “Characteristics of Great Software”.
From there, you can springboard to performance needs of an application, to it’s ease of use, it’s interoperability, reliability and so on.
I also recommend reading “Human Interface Design” because of it’s well documented discussion on accessibility issues.
The Apple interface guideline is the perfect compendium to add to your QA background, and I suggest that you spend the entire weekend reading it, instead of grinding your “toon” to level 68 in World of Warcraft (which is what I am about to do in five minutes).
Link: About Face 2.0
Link: Apple Human Interface Guidelines
