Demo Testing

I highly recommend that you give lots of demos during the development process, since they always seem to reveal problems. Many people are baffled why this occurs, but the explanation is quite simple. The reason you always find bugs when you give a demo is that you are using the program as a user, not as a programmer. Demos force you to make the critical change in perspective I've emphasized throughout this chapter. You are presenting the program to your audience to show how the user will accomplish various tasks, which is not what you normally do during development. Furthermore, your audience will ask questions and want to do tasks that never occurred to you. They will be confused by user interface elements that you think are obvious. Of course, a program in development always has to crash at least once during a demo. Demos never seem to go as planned.

Another advantage to giving demos is that having people watch you use your program makes you extra self-conscious. Features that are slow seem to take forever during a demo. Interactions that are cumbersome or unnecessary become especially apparent, even though they didn't bother you much during development. Features that you implemented months ago that you thought were obvious and straightforward seem to have somehow disappeared from the user interface or become confusing. And details that you thought were cool, like flaming logos, start to look a little dorky. The size of small mistakes and inconsistencies grows by at least an order of magnitude when others are watching. Every little glitch in your demo should be considered a sign of a user interface problem.

Giving demos is an easy, cost-effective way to obtain valuable feedback. You can give a demo at any time, even at the earliest stages of development, since you are in total control of the program and can talk your way through missing features. Be aware of the problems that arise, and be sure to take notes. I believe demos are a critical part of the testing process, and I recommend that you try to give as many as you can. If nobody is asking you for a demo, just grab anyone that makes the mistake of walking by your office.

TIP

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Give a lot of demos to obtain valuable feedback, especially early in the development process.