April 16, 2014

009: Quality Assurance Testing that Changes Lives

This week we talk with Andy Aczel the CTO of the SpecialistsGuild.org about how they use quality assurance (QA) testing to change the lives of people on the Autism Spectrum. The Specialist Guild is able to train, place, and employ people on the spectrum while also doing great work to improve how websites and applications work for organizations.

Web QA testing involves checking a site against the defined project scope with the goal of identifying and documenting bugs. The tests span across major devices, browsers, and operating systems to make sure functionality is consistent. This bug hunting process is a critical step in software development and helps produce polished websites that provide users with a better experience.

Usability testing is a methodology where users are asked to perform certain tasks based on the original product design to test ease-of-use, task time, and the user experience. Testing can be done in a lab with cameras/screen recorders or informally with someone watching a user use the product.

Additional Resources

Specialistguild.org Great usability testing firm

Screenfly – screen grabs and usability across browsers (free)

Browser Stack – test your site across devices (free tests)

Selenium – automatic browser testing scripts

Jira – mentioned in the cast used for bug tracking and project management

FogBugz

– simple web bug tracking tool.

Virtual Box by Oracle – Local virtual machine software that let’s you render full OS versions locally.

Don’t Make Me Think – great book and resource for understanding usability testing.

Transcription

Episode 9

Speaker 1: This is Using the Whole Whale, a podcast that brings you stories about data and technology in the non-profit world. My name is George Weiner, your host and the chief whaler at wholewhale.com. Thanks for joining us.

Have you ever written an article and then gone back and tried to edit it? How did that work out? If you’re anything like me, you’re not your own best editor. And what holds true for writing certainly holds true for writing code and coding websites. Welcome to Episode 9 where we’re going to be talking about usability testing, but not just any usability testing. We’re talking with a very interesting organization called The Specialist Guild who are actually using usability testing not only to improve people’s websites but change people’s lives. They work with people who are on the high end of the Autism Spectrum, teach them how to do usability testing, and then help them get placed into jobs. Or they end up working directly with the Specialist Guild, helping improve the websites of other organizations. Let’s talk with the CTO, Andy, from the Specialist Guild and see how they’re doing.

Okay so we’re here with Andy, from the Specialist Guild, and An

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