Thursday, 23 May 2013

Testing, Feedback and Improvements

Testing
Testing is the process of checking a program for errors. It can also mean that you are going out of your way to try break the program, or do unusual things to it in order to see how it reacts.
If problems are identified in testing, then they should be fixed before the program is released.
If you have ever played on a game and ended up finding something a bit unusual, or pressed a sequence of buttons only for something weird to happen? That's because it wasn't tested properly (Sometimes, though, when programmers make things they like to put cool suprise things in. They are called Easter Eggs.)
Here are some bugs examples Link! 
There are loads out there but lots of them are from games which are rated 18!

Examples for testing a website
A normal test would be to check that all of the buttons work - do they take you to where they say they will, if they are supposed to change do they.
An abnormal test might be to check what happens if you click on the button 10 times really quickly - what happens in this unusual situation?

Examples for testing a game
A normal test would be to check that the character runs when you press the run key.
An abnormal test might be to go to the edge of the world in the game, press a sequence of buttons and see what happens.

Examples for tesing a database
A normal test would be to check that you can write text into a cell which wants you to write text.
An abormal test might be to check if you can write text in a cell which wants you to write numbers.

Before you test anything you should always come up with a test plan. It is normally done in a table and it is where you state what you are going to test and how you are going to test it. You should leave space to also write down when you tested it, how you tested it and what happened when you tested it.


Feedback
Feedback is what is used to make something better, and feedback should always be gathered from as many people as possible - ensuring that you get a good range of people because different people will suggest different things.
When you ask someone for feedback you should give them some starting points - come up with some questions for them to answer, but also give them an opportunity to give their own feedback.
Remember that the person you are asking for feedback might not be an expert in ICT/computing, so try to keep your language nice and simple.
You also need to remember that feedback is subjective, if one person thinks a colour scheme works someone else might not agree.

Example questions for getting feedback on a website
How do easy did you think the navigation bar was to use?
Did you notice any spelling or grammar mistakes?

Example questions for getting feedback on a game
Do you jump if you press the space bar? Is the jump high enough for you to jump over/onto objects?
What do you think of the choice of the outfits for the character?

Example questions for getting feedback on a database
Do you think the colour choices on the form are appropriate?
Do you think the form is clearly laid out and easy to use?


Improvements
Getting people to suggest improvements is also a bit subjective - getting the opinions of others is very useful though as they might think of things that you never thought up yourself!
Like feedback you should try and get improvements from as many people as possible, making sure that you try to ask as wide of a range of people as you can.
When asking people to suggest improvements you can ask them specific questions (might be useful if you are asking people who are very young/old/are unfamiliar with what you are showing them) or you can leave it open ended.

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