There are going to be more mobile phones than people on the Earth by end of this year. Can you imagine? The planet will have over 7 billion smartphones! We are witnessing the biggest technological turn in history where the very human is involved. Now, in a time when almost everyone has a smartphone, when all you need to reach anyone or find out anything is to tap your smartphone’s screen, we can proclaim the birth of a new type of human – Homo tapiens.
Smartphone religion
Gadgets and devices have become a sort of religion in modern society. Kids are not dreaming about new books or new “kinder surprises,” which was common for them 20 years ago. Modern kids want a new iPhone, same as their fathers and mothers have.
This is where we are finding the new technological and psychological turn. In the 1990s, Andrew Bromfield translated a novel, “Generation ‘P’” where the term “Homo zapiens” was used for the first time. According to the novel, TV had changed the human mindset. Once people got the opportunity to zap channels while seating or lying on the sofa in front of the display, the way of thinking was changed. The new turn of the 2010s has been tapping – hence Homo tap-iens.
Who maintains the new civilization?
Consider how you start your day. You wake up switching off or pressing snooze on the alarm of your smartphone. Then some of you call a taxi via a special taxi app or check the bus schedule on another app. When on the bus, people all around you are playing games, posting “good morning” photos on Instagram, answering e-mails and chatting via WhatsApp. The majority of people start their day using their smartphones in one way or another.
As a tester, I know the hidden side of Homo tapiens. To ensure the best performance and convenient interface of applications, millions of picky testers like me put all the apps through the wringer, testing for security, performance, usability, compatibility, localization and functionality. If you have an app on your phone that you love, chances are there were several developers and testers who worked very hard behind the scenes to get it that way.
Although it might sound odd, testing software is all about psychology and anthropology. When testing a new application, the testers must put themselves into the end-user’s shoes and think of how a user who downloaded the app would respond.
Think like a criminal
One day, my friend “lost” money in her own apartment. She couldn’t find it anywhere, so she asked me where I would search for money if I were a criminal who had broken into her apartment. She figured thinking like a criminal would help us think to check places we may not have otherwise considered. This approach stuck with me. I decided to follow it every time I test a new application.
For instance, when testing an app for purchasing medical services, I thought of my grandma. She is so nimble and able to do several things at a time, and she does them fast. She can text and bake an apple pie simultaneously, but that doesn’t always mean she’s giving each activity her full attention. Thinking of my grandma doing those things, I did the same with the app. Not paying attention to graphics, I quickly filled in graphs of the app I had to test. I did it roughly and inattentively. Doing it this way allowed me to discover a major bug; a paid medical app was allowing clients’ consultants free of charge.
When testing a voice-surfing app, I pretended to be a teenager who always listens to music on his smartphone. It was a challenging task, but it helped me find bugs.
Usability is key
There is no doubt such tests as security and performance are extremely important, but I’ve found usability to be the top priority. Even when a tester doesn’t have a direct task to improve usability, he should always keep that in mind; usability-thinking is something that should penetrate every test. When you help make an app intuitive, everyone benefits. When you have a great performance app but it takes a user a couple of hours to cope with its settings to reach the stated performance, it’s a failure.
Thinking “like criminals” and finding as many bugs as possible, applications are being improved every day to make them more usable. This is how we not only push civilization ahead, but also maintain peace and calmness among the new generation of Homo tapiens.
Nadia Knysh is head of the Agile QA department for A1QA, with seven years of leadership experience. She is responsible for Agile methodology development within the company. Her technical and management background helps her to correctly allocate the team’s workflow. Knysh is a Certified ScrumMaster, and she holds a master’s degree in software engineering and an ISTQB certificate.
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