Changing Your Perspective

Conventional wisdom says that programmers are incapable of testing their own user interfaces. My experience is different. I believe that programmers can and should test their own user interfaces, but doing so requires them to learn how to change their perspective.

A common argument is that programmers are so familiar with the user interface they've created that they are blind to its problems. I believe this argument is only partially true. For example, if you have just developed your first Microsoft Windows user interface, you probably are unaware of the interface's shortcomings because of your lack of experience. But the real reason programmers have difficulty testing their own user interfaces is that they need to learn to change their perspective. You need to stop testing your program as a programmer and start testing it as a user. Try to use the program as a user would. Stop thinking about the problems you already know about. Stop doing those same old tests over and over again, using the same old test data. Rather, pretend you are a first-time user who is trying to accomplish the basic tasks that the program provides. It's essential that you test the program by doing real tasks, not by using features. Explore the program as a user would. Try to figure out how to use the program just by looking at it. Try to respond only to what you see on the screen—if it's not on the screen, it doesn't exist. Try to do new or unusual things. You'll be amazed at how many problems you can find if you simply change your perspective.

TIP
The key to successful programmer testing is to change your perspective and use your program like a user.



Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows
Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows
ISBN: 0735605866
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 334

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