Wearable tech products are gathering pace in the world tech market. After a few major tech companies dipped their toes in the water, based on their relative success; many more companies are now jumping in to get a foot-hold in this rapidly expanding and exciting industry sector.<\/p>\n
In order to support the development teams behind wearable tech such as; fitness trackers, smart watches and smart glasses etc. effective QA requires re-thinking it\u2019s approach. The fundamental reason for this extra focus is typically required in the area of usability testing.<\/p>\n
Often usability testing will be a factor for QA when testing mobile apps or websites, and is used to compliment other forms of more traditional QA, such as; functional testing and compatibility testing. Aspects of usability testing will typically include testing the \u201clook and feel\u201d of the product, end-user scenarios, colour schemes etc. For wearable tech, this type of QA cannot be performed via simulators, it must be tested on a functional product or even a prototype.<\/p>\n
Wearable tech usability testing (when performed correctly) must ensure a product is able to fit into a consumer\u2019s lifestyle without compromise. There are many scenarios that can easily be converted to test cases and ran against such a product. The results of these types of tests provide valuable feedback to the design and ongoing support of the product and any associated app. Some example scenarios are; the product\u2019s workflow for changing user information is confusing or overly-complicated, maybe one of the features is sluggish, or perhaps the product\u2019s battery life is not sufficient for a certain task. All of these simple examples can be detected by a good usability testing plan, and subsequently allow any associated firmware or software to be updated to encompass the required changes.<\/p>\n