As devices get closer to the human user, testers have to test the human experience, rather than perform testing in the lab.

1. A Wearables Story
Testing the Human Experience
A Marathon, a Chip, and a Watch

2. About Us
Gerie Owen
gerie@gerieowen.com
Quality Assurance
Consultant
Speaker and Writer on
Testing topics
Experienced Tester, Test
Lead, & Test Architect
Marathon Runner &
Running Coach
Peter Varhol
peter@petervarhol.com
International speaker on
technology topics
Technology Evangelist
and Writer, Product
Manager, University
Professor
Fitness Technology Geek

3. Meet Our Cats...
Max, Stephanie
& Monica

4. Agenda
What are Wearables?
Examples of Wearables
A Wearables Story
The Human Experience
What is Testing the Human Experience?
Why is it so important?
How do we test it?
Personas
User Value Stories
Discussion and conclusions

5. WHAT ARE WEARABES?

6. Wearables Defined
Electronics that can be worn on the body, either as
an accessory or as part of material used in clothing.
One of the major features of wearable technology is
its ability to connect to the Internet, enabling data to
be exchanged between a network and the device.
Body Computers performing the same computing
tasks and handheld and laptop computers
Often include monitoring and tracking functionality

7. Examples of Wearables
Google Glass
Smartwatches
Bluetooth Headsets (CommBadge)
Sensor-Rich Fabric (HeapSylon)
Baby monitors on a band (Sproutling)
Health and fitness (Fitbit, iFit, Garmin, Microsoft Band)
Pet health and fitness (Whistle)
Hearables (Intel’s BioSport)

8. A WEARABLES STORY

9. The Start

10. The Early Miles

11. The Middle Miles

12. Heartbreak Hill

13. “Left on Boylston”

14. The Finish Line

15. What Do All Wearables Have In Common?
A purpose or function
Coupled with human interaction that
Provides value and achieves goals

16. THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE

17. THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
the human interaction
and
and how the value is provided

18. What is Human Experience Testing?
Isn’t testing the human experience actually usability
testing?
Testing the human experience differs in
Scope
Depth
Approach

19. What is Human Experience Testing?
Testing in the “real world” of the user;
When and where the device will be used;
How the user and the device will function together.

20. What does testing the Human Experience involve?
Emotional, physical and sensory reactions
Biases and our mindsets
Social expectations and interactions

21. Why is Human Experience testing so important?
The closer the device becomes to the
human, the more important “Human”
Testing becomes.
When a networked device is physically attached to us and
works with us and through us, the more important the
results of the interaction or collaboration becomes to us
emotionally and physically

22. How do we test the Human Experience?
We Test Types of Human Interaction
Physical
Sensory
Orientation
Geographical
Context
Values

23. How do we test the Human Experience?
Sensory
Touch, sight, sound, smell, taste, sweat

24. How do we test the Human Experience?
Orientation
Human Movement

25. How do we test the Human Experience?
Geographical
Land, water, hills

26. How do we test the Human Experience?
Context
Time of day
Weather

27. How do we test the Human Experience?
Values
Emotions
Mindsets
Biases

28. HUMAN EXPERIENCE
TEST PLANNING

29. Human Experience Test Planning
Create Personas
Write User Value Stories
Develop Test Scenarios
Based on Personas and User Value Stories
Develop Test Approach
Use the Real World as Your User Interface
Jonathan Kohl

30. PERSONAS

31. Human Experience Test Planning
To test the Human Interaction
Create Personas to understand the humans
who will be using the device

32. What is a Persona?
An archetypal user who represent the needs and
motivations of user groups
Personas represent the motivations, values,
expectations and goals for their interaction with the
wearable
There are usually multiple personas associated with
a given wearable
Although they are fictional, they represent real users
and require research for development

33. Benefits of Using Personas
Provides a focus on the personal and contextual
requirements, goals and concerns
Focuses testing on the most important goals of the
representative users
Provides User Experience direction in exploratory
testing.

34. What is included in a Persona?
A Name
Family Background
Education
Occupation, Socio-economic status
Physical Size and Condition
Gender
Hopes and Desires
Point of View
Social Affiliations
Values
Expectations

35. Let’s Develop Gerie’s Persona
Distance Runner
Course (roads or trails)
Conscious about health
Likely lifetime sport
Impervious to weather
Age 30+
Member of the Running Community
Group training
Individual achievement
Source of fulfillment
“In It To Win It”

36. Gerie’s Persona
Gerie is a middle aged woman who fancies herself as “aging well”. She
boasts of maintaining the same weight as she was in high school. She
was raised in a middle class household and was not into sports when she
was growing up. She is college-educated, holding two advanced
degrees and works full-time at a professional job.
Although she runs to maintain her physical and emotional health, she is
“In it to Win it”. She would not be considered competitive; however, in
small, local races with limited competition, she often places in her age
group. Gerie began running during college and joined a running club in
recent years.
With the support of the group, she achieved one of her three main goals
in life: to run a marathon. After unexpectedly qualifying for the Boston
Marathon in 2010, her goal for her 2011 Boston Marathon run was to
qualify again. Although she relies heavily on her sports watch during her
run to manage her pace and heart rate, she depends the device to create
a permanent record of her achievement.

38. USER VALUE STORIES

39. Human Experience Test Planning
To test How the Value is Provided
Create User Value Stories to
test the ways in which the human will achieve value from
the device

40. What is a User Value Story?
A scenario describing a realistic situation in which
the wearable technology interacts with the user to
provide a benefit.
Based upon how users of the wearable go about
their daily lives.
There are multiple stories per persona.

41. How is a User Value Story Developed?
Beginning, middle, and end
Main character is the Persona
Where might this technology help?
Common practices in using the device
Realistic situations
Pressures, emotions, weather

42. Types of User Value Stories
 Develop at least three User Value Stories for each
Persona:
– Happy Ending: The wearable generates the value desired
by the user
– Sad Ending: The wearable fails to deliver the desired value
to the user
– Mediocre Ending: The wearable generated value but it
didn’t completely meet the expectations of the user.

43. Examples of User Value Stories
Have you heard any user value stories today?

44. Gerie’s Value Stories: Happy Example Components
Happy Story: Garmin Watch
Watch catches the Satellite and holds it throughout the
race.
Check watch for pace for qualifying and personal record;
validating that I can do this
Check heart rate for reassurance on hills
Stop and Save on the Watch
Qualifying time and Personal Record Recorded
Download watch to hard drive
Upload to Garmin Website

45. Gerie’s User Value Stories: Sad Example Components
Sad Story: Race Bib
Bib is kept flat and pinned securely
Step on Mat at the Starting Line
Step on each Mat throughout the race so that time and
pace registers
Pace/Time data does not register
Validate Results on BAA website
No Record ; Bib failed

46. Conclusions
I've learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did, but people will never
forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou
The same can be said about wearables and this is
why we must test the Human Experience