Web Directions » testing http://www.webdirections.org Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:48:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Rob Mitchell & Mike Williams — Test your JavaScripthttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/rob-mitchell-mike-williams-test-your-javascript/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/rob-mitchell-mike-williams-test-your-javascript/#comments Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:13:53 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2221 Rob Mitchell PortraitMike Williams PortraitMike Williams and Rob Mitchell will explain why you should test your JavaScript code, what to test, and how to go about it. They’ll talk about full-stack browser-based tests, as well as true unit tests, and explain where each are appropriate. They’ll also discuss integration of your tests into an automated build, and you’ll leave with a burning desire to try it out on your own projects.

]]> Web Directions South 2009, Sydney Convention Centre, October 9 2.40pm.

Presentation slides

Session description

Increasingly, web-application behaviour is split between logic running on the server, and JavaScript logic running in the browser. Automated testing of the server-side component is fairly common, but too often the browser-side logic is left out in the cold.

Mike Williams and Rob Mitchell will explain why you should test your JavaScript code, what to test, and how to go about it. They’ll talk about full-stack browser-based tests, as well as true unit tests, and explain where each are appropriate. They’ll also discuss integration of your tests into an automated build, and you’ll leave with a burning desire to try it out on your own projects.

About Rob Mitchell

Rob Mitchell PortraitRob Mitchell was exposed to Agile Software Development in 2001 and since then has been a strong advocate of automated testing of software, allowing quick feedback. He has extensive experience in writing and testing web applications as well as leading teams to deliver quality software.

Follow Rob on Twitter: @rob_mitch

About Mike Williams

Mike Williams PortraitMike Williams has been developing software for about 20 years, in New Zealand, the UK and Australia. He became interested in eXtreme Programming and Test-Driven Development in 2001, shortly after moving to Australia, and has been promoting agile approaches to software development since then. Mike was an early contributer to Selenium, a popular web-application testing tool.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @woollyams

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/rob-mitchell-mike-williams-test-your-javascript/feed/ 0 Daniel Burka — Changing successfully: Adapting your interface over timehttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/daniel-burka-interaction-design-case-studies/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/daniel-burka-interaction-design-case-studies/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:34:22 +0000 jessie http://www.webdirections.org/?p=941 Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 26 1.40pm.

Daniel Burka PortraitUser interface design is an iterative process — the design of Digg and Pownce have been a study in evolution and adaptation. This talk will inspect the why and how of these iterations by looking at specific case studies from the two projects as well as previous client work Daniel has tackled.

The case studies will examine specific user interface challenges that have arisen and will chop them up into their various bits. How do I identify a challenge? What is the best approach for getting started? How do I solve the problem conceptually and technically? How will I know if I solved the challenge successfully? Case studies have been selected that are especially pertinent outside of their specific contexts to help you in your everyday UI design.

The presentation will focus on design inspiration, decision-making processes, technical solutions, and learning from missteps as part of a designer’s iterative process.

]]> Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 26 1.40pm.

Presentation slides

Session description

User interface design is an iterative process — the design of Digg and Pownce have been a study in evolution and adaptation. This talk will inspect the why and how of these iterations by looking at specific case studies from the two projects as well as previous client work Daniel has tackled.

The case studies will examine specific user interface challenges that have arisen and will chop them up into their various bits. How do I identify a challenge? What is the best approach for getting started? How do I solve the problem conceptually and technically? How will I know if I solved the challenge successfully? Case studies have been selected that are especially pertinent outside of their specific contexts to help you in your everyday UI design.

The presentation will focus on design inspiration, decision-making processes, technical solutions, and learning from missteps as part of a designer’s iterative process.

About Daniel Burka

Daniel Burka PortraitDaniel is the creative director at Digg, a founder of Pownce, and a founder of the Canadian web firm silverorange.

At silverorange, Daniel worked with a wide range of clients including Mozilla, Ning, Revision3, and Sloan. He’s since been lured to San Francisco after Kevin Rose dangled the prospect of In ‘N Out burgers and the opportunity to develop the user experience for the social news website Digg. As Digg’s creative director, Daniel has helped the site grow from a niche technology news site into one of the leading media services on the web with a massive and passionate community. Recently, along with Leah Culver and Kevin, Daniel helped found Pownce — a social network that lets you share files, events, messages, and links with your friends. Daniel works on feature development and the user interface of Pownce.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/daniel-burka-interaction-design-case-studies/feed/ 2 Lisa Herrod — User testing for the rest of ushttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/lisa-herrod2/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/lisa-herrod2/#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:57:44 +0000 Maxine http://westciv.com/webdirections08/resources/lisa-herrod2/ A presentation given at at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008.

Lisa Herrod PortraitEveryone knows they should be doing it, but like software testing, it's one of those things we often don't get round to. In this presentation, Lisa Herrod looks at some sure fire user testing techniques that produce proven results, don't cost the earth, and are easy to implement. After this session you won't have any more excuses for not doing solid user testing of any site or application you develop ever again.

]]> A presentation given at at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008.

Presentation slides

Session description

Everyone knows they should be doing it, but like software testing, it’s one of those things we often don’t get round to. In this presentation, Lisa Herrod looks at some sure fire user testing techniques that produce proven results, don’t cost the earth, and are easy to implement. After this session you won’t have any more excuses for not doing solid user testing of any site or application you develop ever again.

About Lisa Herrod

Lisa Herrod PortraitLisa Herrod is the Principal Usability Consultant at Scenario Seven. The primary focus of her work is web usability, which she believes incorporates much more than just user testing. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, Lisa takes an holistic approach to web usability incorporating user research, accessibility, interaction design and web standards development.

Having started in the web during the last century, Lisa is occasionally caught making jokes about font tags, layout tables and shims. Nobody ever laughs.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/lisa-herrod2/feed/ 0 Jackie Moyes — Converting research findings into business speakhttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/jackie-moyes/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/jackie-moyes/#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:20:50 +0000 Maxine http://westciv.com/webdirections08/resources/jackie-moyes/ A presentation given at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008.

Jackie Moyes PortraitGetting your company to adopt a user-centred design approach can be an uphill struggle. The first stage typically is to get them to agree to incorporate usability testing in to the development process, at a stage early enough to actually implement any design recommendations. The second stage is to convince them to do more ethnographic style research to understand the larger context of the task that the site is trying to support. The biggest challenge comes last – how to help the business owners make the mental leap between the in-depth findings from the research and the implications and opportunities it presents to your core business strategy and product roadmap.

This is the challenge that the User Experience team at News Digital Media have been addressing. In this presentation, Jackie will discuss this issue in more depth and present examples of ‘design tools’ the team have been experimenting with to try and bridge this gap and help the business develop more user-centric strategies.

]]> A presentation given at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008.

Presentation slides

Session description

Getting your company to adopt a user-centred design approach can be an uphill struggle. The first stage typically is to get them to agree to incorporate usability testing in to the development process, at a stage early enough to actually implement any design recommendations. The second stage is to convince them to do more ethnographic style research to understand the larger context of the task that the site is trying to support. The biggest challenge comes last – how to help the business owners make the mental leap between the in-depth findings from the research and the implications and opportunities it presents to your core business strategy and product roadmap.

This is the challenge that the User Experience team at News Digital Media have been addressing. In this presentation, Jackie will discuss this issue in more depth and present examples of ‘design tools’ the team have been experimenting with to try and bridge this gap and help the business develop more user-centric strategies.

About Jackie Moyes

Jackie Moyes PortraitJackie graduated with a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction in 1995 and since then has been conducting user research and interaction design for clients in the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the US. In 2005 she established and still currently heads up the User Experience Team at News Digital Media – in two years moving the company culture from one that either outsourced or ignored experience design to one that now employs one of the largest and most highly qualified, in-house user experience teams within Australia.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/jackie-moyes/feed/ 0 Steve Baty — Analysing user research datahttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/steve-baty/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/steve-baty/#comments Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:21:18 +0000 Maxine http://westciv.com/webdirections08/resources/steve-baty/ A presentation given at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Australia, May 16 2008.

Steve Baty PortraitIn our efforts to better understand the end users of the sites & applications we design, we generate a great deal of data. That data is useless to us until it has been analyzing and interpreted. This presentation looks at some of the methods & techniques we can use to make sense of user research data in a meaningful & rigorous way. The presentation will look at some of the common types of quantitative data collected during user research, and the statistical analysis methods we can employ to make the most of our data-gathering efforts. The session covers practical examples such as task completion rates, time-to-completion, page view comparison, as well as some basic concepts in statistics.

]]> A presentation given at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Australia, May 16 2008.

Presentation slides

Session description

In our efforts to better understand the end users of the sites & applications we design, we generate a great deal of data. That data is useless to us until it has been analyzing and interpreted. This presentation looks at some of the methods & techniques we can use to make sense of user research data in a meaningful & rigorous way.

The presentation will look at some of the common types of quantitative data collected during user research, and the statistical analysis methods we can employ to make the most of our data-gathering efforts. The session covers practical examples such as task completion rates, time-to-completion, page view comparison, as well as some basic concepts in statistics.

About Steve Baty

Steve Baty PortraitFounder & Principal Consultant at Meld, Steve has over 13 years’ experience in the design and delivery of e-business services. Steve is a well-known practitioner in the area of experience strategy and architecture, writing articles for industry publications and presenting at local conferences. During his career Steve has completed over 300 Web projects & thousands of smaller tasks.

Steve has, over the past four years, led user experience teams to develop online strategies and experience architectures for clients across a broad spread of industries including: tourism, travel, transport, consumer electronics, manufacturing, government, and the arts. These include projects for the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts; an expert review for Maersk Line — the world’s largest container shipping company; oneworld Alliance — the world’s leading airline alliance; YHA Australia; and Fuji Xerox Australia.

Steve holds post-graduate degrees in electronic commerce (M.Ec) and business administration (MBA) from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management; and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics (Physical Mathematics & Applied Statistics) from the University of Technology, Sydney.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/steve-baty/feed/ 1