Interview: 3 Questions For a UX Tester

Thanks to greater choice on the market, it is more important than ever to provide users with the best experience possible. Brands like Spotify, Slack, and YouTube are recognized for their great user experience (UX) on their sites and apps. While great design is one key to their success, another crucial factor in their success is usability or UX testing.

What is UX Testing?

UX testing is a kind of test that aims to expose design aspects that can make browsing or using a app or website annoying or unpleasant. UX testing can focus on the use of the layout, ergonomics, color scheme, font and text size, and other aspects that affect a user’s experience.

When people come across an app or website with a poor UX, they quickly leave the site or app in search of an alternative thanks to a variety of choice on the market. For brands however, this abandonment means less revenue as a result of lost sales or lower traffic.

To gain a better understanding of UX testing, we interviewed Benjamin Papelard, a QA tester at StarDust Testing.

3 UX Questions with a QA Tester

What is the key to UX testing?

The key to UX testing is putting yourself in the shoes of the end user in order to find bugs or design flaws that create a less than perfect user experience. This includes uncovering elements that make it difficult to navigate a website or mobile app, unresponsive functions or links, slow load speeds, confusing layouts, or a lack of fluidity. Since UX testing can be subjective, it is important to think and behave like an end user to provide valuable feedback that can help developers improve the UX.

What is an aspect of UX testing that is often overlooked?

An overlooked aspect of UX testing is the importance of testing across different screen dimensions. This is important given the fact that smartphones, tablets, and computers all support different screen sizes. Since screen sizes can affect the way a page is displayed, it is important to test on a variety of devices that have different screen sizes. For example, a button or menu that appears halfway on the screen or is completely missing can easily create a poor UX for any user.

What is one piece of advice for a new UX tester?

While a UX test needs to assess important aspects like the user’s journey, it is equally important to evaluate the visual presentation or layout of an app or website. Whether it is an image of a product or an advertisement, the way images appear can impact users and influence their initial perceptions, which will influence their decision to browse or leave the site or app.

UX and QA testing is vital to the success of any website, app, IoT, or software solution. In fact, it is quite common for brands to execute both functional and UX tests simultaneously.

We invite you to learn more about the importance of UX Testing by contacting us below or by discovering a client testimonial detailing the benefits of testing.