Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
We talk about the importance of software testing all the time. We quote journalists who talk about the importance of software testing all the time. We talk to thought leaders in the field at least once a month. But what do the testers themselves think? The people who are in the trenches battling bugs day in and day out, how do they feel, what issues do they see over and over again, what keeps them doing their job and, ultimately, why is testing so important?
Here are some insights from testers who specialize in sometimes overlooked testing fields.
Inge De Bleecker – Usability Expert
Inge has been working in the user experience field for 20 years. She started working with mobile device user interfaces in 2000.
Why is usability testing important?
In usability testing we evaluate whether test participants were able to complete tasks and how easy or hard it was. We gather feedback on any aspects of the user’s experience that are troublesome or could use improvement. Usability testing is important because it allows a company to verify the usability of their interface and fix issues before they release their product.
What does a UX expert do and how is it different from other types of testing?
A UX expert is a user experience professional; someone who defines the usability testing tasks and questions. Once all participants have completed their tasks and answered all questions, the UX expert analyzes the data and writes a results report. The expert also investigates the interface for any usability issues based on best practices and industry standards.
What benefit does a UX expert provide to customers?
If the customer doesn’t have a resident UX professional, the expert’s background and experience in user experience and writing of tasks and questions will benefit the customer. Customers who do have in-house UX teams benefit from engaging an outside professional who can look at the interface in an unbiased way.
Alex Waldmann – Security Expert
Alex has a background in web development and began focusing on web security testing in 2005.
What extra benefits does a security expert provide over a typical tester?
Security testing needs a lot of expertise (more than can be given by coaching regular functional testers in an acceptable amount of time), otherwise it is just checklist-testing. Experts in the security testing field are able to find system-specific exploits that require thinking out of the box and first gathering an understanding of the business logic. Manual penetration testing requires the will to break into a system and destroy things to show the developers they can’t keep an attacker out. Security testing requires knowledge about the art (and downfall) of programming, ideally by having programming experience, so most security experts are also fit when it comes to functional testing.
What’s the most common issue you come across when testing?
Unfortunately many customers neglect the importance of protection against Cross Site Scripting issues, and put their customers private data at risk. Silent theft of customer data is possibly the biggest threat to modern web services because in most cases the customer would never notice why his customers leave and start buying from competitors instead.
Howard Rubin – Localization Expert
Howard lives in Brazil and speaks English and Brazilian Portuguese. He ‘s been testing for 5+ years.
Why is localization testing is important?
For developers to expect their product to be successful, they need to think of the world as a whole. It’s “The Internet.” There are no more boundaries. Clients in other countries will not try, use or buy you product unless it is something they can be familiar with. In addition, many areas of the world are very defensive and loyal to their language and culture, developers have to get a product correct for this audience.
Is it important to use testers located in the area the software is targeting?
I can notice this better than most people. I am an American living in Brazil for 13 years. I can check translations but I can’t translate idiomatic expressions well, which can be mixed in the text. If you do not get the translation right, your product could be ridiculed! So yes, a local citizen should be preferred over a non-native person like me. Preferably a person in tune with local culture and “what’s happening” will provide a superior translation and the result will feel more like a local product.
Localization testing is more than just translation, it involves testing for written format, cultural understanding, conversions (such as figures or currency) and other considerations. Are these factors easily missed during translations?
It is these small things that can give a translation a non-human feel to it, like it was something done by a machine. In a Brazilian Portuguese translation, transcribing using the letter “C” instead of a cidilla “Ç” is an instant give away that maybe the translation is not being done by a local person, but instead by someone using a machine. Using the capital letter “R” to designate the local currency Resis is also important.
What’s the biggest L10n issue you notice in apps you use on your personal device (apps that might not have gone through localization testing?)
The biggest issue I have experienced is that parts of the app will be translated, but the developers forget their app needs to connect to their homepage on the internet … which is still in English! Policy, FAQs and other important documents are usually the ones that do not get translated . These are the documents that are accessed online.
What do you think when you encounter apps that have clearly not been localized well?
I suspect the app was translated by a well-meaning relative of the developer. Depending on the purpose of the application, I may suspect it is not original, or it has been hacked or contains Trojans. I would close it quickly and start scanning my device.