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I wonder what the workflow is in the Apple teams that allows them to catch stuff like this. Is this the work of a single, smart programmer, or a good QA team?
by runemadsen 14y ago
I wonder what the workflow is in the Apple teams that allows them to catch stuff like this. Is this the work of a single, smart programmer, or a good QA team?
- pwthornton 14y agoIt's most likely from a strong culture of interaction design and usability testing. During the design process, you usually do usability tests with would-be users and they can help illuminate issues with your design. In this case, it may have even been during testing that a person said, "well that's not what I meant by tomorrow." Pretty much every time I do a usability test or study, random users catch small things like this that help make a product much better. When you design without feedback, you have your own mental model of how everything is supposed to work. But you're the designer and the expert, and users are not. They often find different ways to use your product than you intended.
- philfreo 14y agoBut it's even more impressive because you could do usability testing all day long (during work hours) and never catch this issue. It's when someone's _really_ using it where something like this comes up.
- nicholassmith 14y agoI'd imagine someone was dogfooding and had an 'ah hah!' moment when they hit a similar issue. Often the best way to spot anything missing.
- sneak 14y agoLike talking into a prototype iPhone at 00:35 while drunk in a bar? :D
- atlbeer 14y agoThis has to be internal user testing feedback. One of those delicate edge cases that you find once you start using a product.
- MrScruff 14y agoIt's possible this wasn't actually an Apple designer - Siri was fairly well featured when they acquired it.
- jonknee 14y agoConsidering it is Siri, it is not a good QA team. Probably a programmer who set an alarm shortly after midnight one time and had an unexpected result.
- mrxd 14y agoIt's called user experience design.