Weeknotes – series 06 episode 10

Design Quality Assurance (QA) and device testing

An iPad and a Google Pixel phone rest on a wooden stand on a table. Behind the phone, a black sticker with white text that says "Customers, Users" The word customer has a red line through it.

This week my devices from Made Tech arrived in the post. I ordered some second-hand devices to do some QAing on the apps. In addition to my personal iPhone, I now have access to an Android phone and tablet, plus an iPad.

I found a few small bugs that relate to design consistency, content standards and assistive technology compatibility. I also created a few process based tickets around making sure we’re following GDS’s (Government Digital Service) recommended practices for the beta phase, for example…

Making sure everyone can use your service (at beta phase)

  • run regular accessibility testing
  • run research sessions with disabled people
  • get an accessibility audit and fix any issues
  • explore whether the service has any pain points that might lead to people being excluded, and what steps you are taking to address them
  • prepare to publish an accessibility page for your service

This list is taken from: How the beta phase works – GOV.UK

Remote user research about video and text content

Our team also kicked off a round of discovery user research around video and written content formats. It’s been so good to observe user research again, it’s been a while since I was last able to do it. We're using User Zoom to run the sessions, which has some nice features specifically for user research, making it better that relying on just Google Meet or Microsoft Teams.

It’s early days, but it seems like a mix of content types can help people to understand complex content more easily. And I was very happy when one participant described the need for content in different formats (text, audio and video) and different languages (for people who use English as a second language or people who use sign language). This was a need that was very common in Test and Trace, so I’m keen to explore what we can do to better meet this need.

Content warning: ableist language

I sparked a little debate on Twitter about Crazy 8s. Some people suggested more inclusive names for the exercise, like Random 8s.

Others discussed whether it’s even a useful exercise to do. When we ran it in work earlier this week, I did think it was a good way to bring non-designers into the process.

Other things