Desktop Testing

As we all know usability tests are used to make sure your products User Interface. However if you are providing desktop application testing services the experience is, at some point, dramatically different from web of mobile testing sessions. To fully understand what we will be dealing with we should sit straight inside our little time machine and travel back to where it all began. Just remember, don’t step on any bugs in the past or you will change the future as we know it! Back in the day… So do you remember the first software available to users? Despite it was mostly something programmers were creating for other programmers, uses had a chance to benefit from new solutions and they were guided through the process. Software was straight-forwarded back in the day with one entry point and one exit point hence users were guided with series of screens ordered in an appropriate manner. Customization ability was a miracle back then and, by the way it was mostly terrifying. The process of software installation was entirely manual so were the configurations, meaning all was modified with hands. It was hard and even if manual were provided they were not written in common understandable language hence tech support lines were smoking hot from callers and maintenance expanses skyrocketed. Some magic was required only a true Wizard could perform. The world of today And we are back home now with the apps we all are used to, apps users love and feel comfortable with. How did they become that much better if usability is considered? Applications are a business now and more people have access to PCs than earlier. People who are not skilled programmers but still require appropriate software. Target audience has revolutionized the world of software development. This leads us to a fact that desktop usability tests must consider all kinds of users, from a third grader to a nuclear physicist or even a senior person that launces a PC on his own for the first time to Skype with children. That’s hard, right? The installation process is what really differs today’s desktop apps from their elder family. Users are guided with sets of screens and easy choices while the app is being installed, which is nice. That is called the Wizard concept and it may now be found in multiple areas of the system and the OS like network configurations, the process of adding new hardware and etc. This allows pretty much all users to install software on their own without breaking a sweat. Where is ...

A human mind is incapable of memorizing every single piece of information that it receives thus we’ve invented pen, paper, a red rubber around the wrist, etc. Testing is in no way different, so here is an example of a not-to-forget list you may use when performing desktop testing. First let’s divide the list into levels. The first one would be GUI, the User Interface Testing. What to do on this stage? Correct the content and the words used in the web page The wrap-around needs to flow smoothly Check the app’s instructions. They have to be precise. Are your pictures displayed accordingly with text? Double-check that. So we are now going for the most time and effort consuming part – the functional testing. Watch out for broken links. Eliminate them for good. How you’re warning are messages doing? Are they being displayed in a proper business-oriented way? Resolutions have a huge impact on the app’s performance. Make sure your project is responding properly to various resolution changes. Verify the next print relating things: watch how it behaves when the printer is both connected and unattached; test the prints functionality; check whether the app is giving an error message when the printer is broken or has no paper, etc.; double check the print layout of rather long event descriptions, etc. Make sure your app is doing great after the user has changed its theme  Make sure the app installation process in flowing accordingly, whether the app is installed to the right folders, gets removed easy and properly and older versions can’t be installed over newer ones. Create a few user accounts with various access and enjoy playing with your app. Is it doing OK with every user? Check if the app is launching properly in a new user account, switch between them and watch how it is handling itself when two or more users are using the same account. The sleepy tests. Put the system to sleep, while your app is running, then in a couple of minutes verify if the app is still running and whether there are no errors or distortions Check if the app is running fine after you delete its cache both when the app was running and not. And we’re almost through and getting to our step three the compatibility testing. Test the app on various OS of your choice and demand due to the fact that not everything can work with same shine in different systems And the final stage: performance testing. Watch out for downtime. Check ...

Some people are still confused and reaching a deadlock about blurred distinction between Desktop, Client server and Web testing. But this article will shed the light on the key testing features of these kinds of testing. When you are moving from desktop to web systems, you should be concentrated on the environment, as exactly the environment of the testing systems is that key feature which makes Desktop, Client server and Web testing differ from each other. So each of three testing systems is tested in different environment. Ways of testing: Desktop application should be launched on PC and work places, so if you exercise the desktop system you are concentrating your attention upon a certain environment. You have to test the whole application in detail in such groups as Graphical user interface, functionality, Load, back-end i.e DB. When it comes for client server application, here you need a couple of elements to exercise. System is driven only on the server computer when application exe is started on all client computers. You need to exercise in detail the following groups: Graphical user interface on all its sides, functionality, Load, interoperability of the client and server, back-end. In the main such environment is exploited in Intranet nets. You also get information about quantity of clients and servers as well as their localities in the test script. And finally, web application is the most complicated for the tester among other applications mentioned above. That is because the one who tests web application can not completely control the application. This application is launched on that server machine which locality can be either known or unknown and there is no installed exe on the machine of the client that is why you need to exercise it using different web browsers. Normally, web applications should be tested both on various browsers and operating system platforms in detail. The principal target of exercising?? web application is to reveal if the browsers and operating system are comparable. It is also useful for handling different kinds of errors, back-end and load testing. So now you are well-informed about the environment of these three subkinds of testing systems. We hope this knowledge will be useful for increasing your work efficiency.