I love my Testsphere deck, from Ministry of Testing. I’ve twice seen Riskstorming in action, and the first time that I took part I bought a deck of these cards as soon as I got back to my desk.
I’m not really a tester, though I have really been a tester in the past. I still fall into the trap of thinking that I set out to make this thing do a thing, I have made it do a thing, therefore I am done. I’m painfully aware when metacognating that I am definitely not done at that point, but back “in the zone” I get carried away by success.
One of the reasons I got interested in Design by Contract was the false sense of “done” I feel when TDDing. I thought of a test that this thing works. I made it pass the test. Therefore this thing works? Well, no: how can I keep the same workflow, and speed of progress but improve the confidence in the statement?
The Testsphere cards are like a collection of mnemonics for testers, and for people who otherwise find themselves wondering whether this software really works. Sometimes I cut the deck, look at the card I’ve found, and think about what it means for my software. It might make me think about new ways to test the code. It might make me think about criticising the design. It might make me question the whole approach I’m taking. This is all good: I need these cues.
I just cut the deck and found the “Image” card, which is in the Heuristics section of the deck. It says that it’s a consistency heuristic:
Is your product true to the image and reputation you or your app’s company wishes to project?
That’s really interesting. How would I test for that? OK, I need to know what success is, which means I need to know “the image and reputation [we wish] to project”. That sounds very much like a marketing thing. Back when I ran the mobile track at QCon London, Jaimee Newberry gave a great talk about finding the voice for your product. She suggested identifying a celebrity whose personality embodies the values you want to project, then thinking about your interactions with your customers as if that personality were speaking to them.
It also sounds like there’s a significant user or customer experience part to this definition. Maybe marketing can tell me what voice, tone, or image we want to suggest to our customers, but what does it mean to say that a touchscreen interface works like Lady Gaga? Is that swipe gesture the correct amount of quirky, unexpected, subversive, yet still accessible? Do the features we have built shout “Poker Face”?
We’ll be looking at user interface design, too. Graphic design. Sound design. Copyediting. The frequency of posts on the email list, and the level of engagement needed. Pricing, too: it’s no good the brochure projecting Fortnum & Mason if the menu says Five Guys.
This doesn’t seem like something I’m going to get from red to green in a few minutes in Emacs. And it’s one of a hundred cards.
