Hi everyone! A while back (last December, the basic passage of time pains me) I made a post about potentially being open to testers, and now I'm finally ready!
If you'd like to participate in testing for my coding adventures, join my Discord server (if you haven't already)!
#testing-hub: the channel where I post tasks and questions; e.g. "Are you able to view this page?" / "What happens when you click this button?"
#testing-forum: the channel where you can send any additional details or feedback (please include screenshots!), e.g. "I can see the page but the videos aren't playing".
Trying out the Collections feature. So far I'm iffy on it for fandom purposes, but I LOVE it for creating custom dashboards around a theme. In this example, art:
Tips on how you can be a great beta tester on every Betabound beta test you participate in.
Here are some tips for those of you who are trying out @pillowfort-io. The tips are written for Betabound, but they are general enough to apply for beta users. It’s a quick read, and there is no shortage of advice on being a beta tester on the Internet for those who want to search for more information. (the tip about secrecy is irrelevant though)
While y’all are users, and not testers, the general concepts behind being a beta tester still apply, the big difference is that you’re not literally trying to make the product break.
Providing clear, concise, and polite feedback is the most helpful thing that we can do when using a product that is still in beta development phase. Second most helpful thing is being patient.
Hot Pantz are a sleek, high waisted undergarment that soothe menstrual cramps on the go. This garment uses a thin heating fabric that targets cramping in the abdomen and lower back. It is designed to be sleek, not bulky, so it can be worn comfortably underneath your clothes. Its rechargeable lithium ion battery holds a charge for about an hour. Once it runs low, it can be powered with a USB from a computer or wall adapter, so you can have constant relief outside of bed.
The idea for this product came from my own relationship with my period, which recently, has been very painful. So painful that I’ve had to stay home because of how sick I feel. Heat has always been helpful in relieving my pain, but staying home with a hot water bottle on my belly is not really conducive to my lifestyle. So I wanted to create something that would soothe my menstrual pain while still allowing me to participate in my outside activities.
In my first draftings of the design, I imagined the heating pad like a belt thats tightness could be adjusted to your body -- something similar to a money belt.
Here is the first prototype based on the initial design, using a neoprene and jersey fabric stuffed with a thin heating pad and velcro to fasten.
But then I thought, why not create the heating pad in the form of clothing we are already used to wearing? Underwear! Here is one of the images that inspired the next iteration.
The moodboard I created featured highwaisted panties with loud prints after conversations with women who expressed wanting to have something like a fun secret underneath their clothing.
Here are sketches of the new design, where the heating pads would be placed and how they would be powered, either in serial or in parallel.
The heating pads I used were a woven polyester with conductive thread sealed in a plastic film. I tested the amperage and voltage while the heating pads were wired in parallel and in series to see how much power I would need.
I found a pattern for a high waisted panty online, bought cheap fabric, and started sewing away. Again, I had very little sewing experience before undertaking this project.
I created a little pocket between the inner and outer fabric layers to hold the heating pad. But in the next iteration, I removed the plastic protective layer and sewed the heating fabric directly on to the inner fabric of the underwear.
I used a 3.7v battery with a power boost from Adafruit to bump it up to 5v so I could power the heading fabric. I used silicone wire as connections.
For future iterations I’d like to experiment with all fabric connections and loose the silicone wires if possible. It would be great if we could have a soft battery as well. I’d also like to make a boy short/boxer brief style.
I build a soft case to hold the battery using leftover black neoprene and snapped it on with a metal button. Once the battery was unplugged from the garment, I hand washed and dried them and they still worked!
One of our focuses for this module is learning about the many different types of testing and getting involved with setting up and implementing a testing plan for the alpha beta gamer game The Light Thief, which I talked a little about recently
A big part of this was getting two rounds of user testing set up and completed.
So user testing what is it?
Well, it's a form of testing that involves getting individuals to test the game. These individuals are sat in front of a copy of the game, which can be in a state all the way from a simple tech demo right up to an almost complete product, and are simply asked to play it.
The time allocated for play varies from test to test and can be anything from play for x minutes to play until you finish y levels. For my testing players were required to play for the first 4 levels of the game, which averaged out to be around 12 - 15 minutes of play.
While playing the game the play session may be recorded and a webcam may also be employed to take video of the player’s face to gauge their reactions as they are playing through the game. For this testing plan, we were required to take two rounds of testing one with just game play, the second with the addition of the face camera.
But it isn’t all fun and games, (well it is all games...) in user testing sessions, after completion of the game session the player is given a set of questions for them to fill out, in my case I simply used a google forms form.
There are, of course, more things to take into consideration when performing user testing, like:
Should you be in the room for testing?
Are your feedback questions presented in such a way that they don’t influence the tester's opinion?
What are the forms of bias that will crop up in the data from this specific group of testers vs the next group?
And I am sure there are many many more points to add to this list
My client is working to put together a UX department. They're looking to start doing regularly scheduled UX testing; especially within their e-commerce funnels. I've already provided a bunch of links and resources regarding user testing, but they're naturally concerned about making it as efficient as possible. I asked users different questions than what my client had been, resulting in the destruction of some assumptions. (Oopsie)
Do you have anything you'd consider best practices from your personal experience?
