usability

"User experience" and "usability" are often used synonymously, but they are actually different concepts. This article examines both terms and explains the components of each, investigating what contributes to a "good user experience," the different ways that can be judged, and how designers can attempt to achieve it.

When developing products, features, and enhancements, you have to have your customers’ best interests at heart. “We’re not just creating software,” speaker Jeff Patton said. “We’re changing the world.” You need to better understand the people you’re building things for, and the only way to do that is to spend more time with them.

It simply isn’t feasible to test every possible user scenario with a new app, and the testers who already know how the app should perform can't approach using it the same way as someone unfamiliar with the process. Enter crowdsourced testing, where you gather a customizable pool of people from outside your organization to test your apps for defects and usability.

Terry Wiegmann noticed that in certain conversations with clients and team members, a single phrase can take her back to some “aha” moments when she grasped fundamental quality concepts. She shares some of these major learning moments throughout her career and how they can apply to quality engineering.