1 Simple Reason for the Importance of Usability Testing in Real-Time Systems

What does  Usability software testing mean?

Usability testing is mostly based on the user experience of using the system.

The topic was chosen by me as a result of the professional debate in my job with one of the project managers.

The reason for the professional debate was our different professional approach to usability testing in real-time systems.

The source of the discussion was a standard professional interview with the potential tester to one of the projects.

As part of the job interview, the tester was asked to answer the following question: “What tests can be performed for an elevator array? It could include different types of tests types such as sanity, functional, load, hardware, usability, and load tests.

The candidate returned test cases from all types of tests and I thought it was enough for me.

Suddenly a project manager asked him: “What’s about the test to air condition?” After all, with no air condition what the value of the lift, the air conditioner is a classic example of user experience…

You must be wondering, why is aroused the professional debate?

Important to say that most of my career was in real-time systems.

The main emphasis of the real-time tests is complex processes, algorithms, and less user experience because the development approach is “the user should know what he is doing”…

Maybe is it the correct approach …

In Real-time systems, the user really should know what he is doing but is this an unequivocal approach.

I think these systems have gradual change in the last years, we can see the understanding that users should be involved early in the requirements stage and even should be part of the testing process.

Also, many projects begin UX definition in the early stages of development.

Why is it so important to “user experience” and what significant impact of it in real-time systems?

The user using the system on a daily base therefore it’s very important to provide the user with a great user experience.

The users could reject the system if the system not intuitive enough or not user-friendly.

Just think about it!  If you are working on a system of any kind and something is not intuitive, what happened as a result?

In the beginning, it bothers you, then begins to irritate and can finally be discouraged and eventually even stop using the system.

Have you ever seen the end of such software systems?

I got to know systems where end-users were not involved in the characterization and design. As a result after the version release to production, I’d hear comments like: “The system is not intuitive to the user”, ” There are too many clicks  I need to do in purpose select the “x” action in a system” and etc’.

I think usability and user-friendly tests are so important for each software that has a UI side and today those tests not less important than the rest of the tests.

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