Now how user friendly that sounds? And what exactly do we mean by this user-friendly tag that seems to be associated with everything conceived these days? Its very open-ended and subjective when people say “I want a User friendly application”. And the thought that struck me hard was how to make little inputs for this User friendly application.

Make them understand what it means.

There was this discussion I had with my pool of designers who were wanting to create something new novel and very user friendly. I asked them this simple question. “When do you disassociate the User and Application from ‘User Friendly Application’ what’s left out?” someone pointed “friendly”. That’s right. But can you define a friend?

A volley of statements sprung up. I noted each:

“A friend in need is a friend indeed”

“Someone who knows me”

“Someone who is simple”

“Someone whom I like to be with”

“Someone who solves my problem and not create one”

“Some one who guides me by directions and feedback”

So I ask the talent pool assembled to look assess each of the statement and relate to the application. It’s like joining the dot – a simple exercise. ‘A friend in need’ – the application must serve and scale up to the user’s needs. ‘Someone who knows me’ the application must know more about the user. Think of the Amazon.com – an amazing site that keeps track of the user’s interest and preference. In essence knowing the user. ‘Someone who is simple’ – the application ought to be simple to understand and elementary in use. That’s the strength to address something as user friendly. ‘ someone who guides me by directions and feedback’ like the pop-up message that springs on the screen prompting you to make your next move “ your transaction completed successfully. Do you wish to continue?”.

The design team was dismissed with a deadline on deliverable. The mission was accomplished much before the set date but impressed me were the emotions the design depicted. It was a step further.

Simplest way of solving complex and subjective snags is to make it objective by removing the frills and concentrating on the core – you can translate the road-blocks to results

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System Testing for Business Critical Application - Best Practice

When I was doing my Project Management certification, I was so very engrossed with the details and dogmas the curriculum communicated. I decided then to script a Testing methodology imbibing the principles of Project management, and thus rolled out “Best Practice” which successfully saw the light of the day.

Now we ought to remember that the best practices are never a direct fit. It has to be customized to give the best results with the same fundamentals.. For e.g., there is no pint re-inventing the wheel. The Attributes of a wheel can change but not the architecture. So, it’s all about adaptation. It’s about leveraging.

To know more about the “Best Practice, follow the link…System Testing - Best Practice