Chapter 10. Design Testing
"Testing leads to failure, and failure leads to understanding."
- Burt Rutan
This chapter addresses the following questions:
- Given all the work invested in research, experience modeling, and design, what is the purpose of testing?
- How and when to test?
- What to test and who should perform the testing?
- What to do with the findings?
Launching a new product or a product redesign, is a significant investment for most companies. Because design plays a pivotal role in the success of many products, testing its effectiveness is considered an important activity before, during, and after the product is launched. And that is why most companies invest in testing.
Testing focuses on two primary dimensions of the design:
- Strategic (macro) testing: This type of testing validates the entire design approach at a high level to ensure that it matches agreed design principles, high-level business requirements, and target audience expectations. This is a macro-level approach that is mostly concerned...