Appendix B. Test Tours for Chrome
The test tours include the following:
• The International Calling Tour
The Shopping Tour
Description: Shopping is a favorite pastime of many people and one of the joys of traveling to somewhere new can be finding new products to buy. In some cities, the shopping is so extravagant that it serves as the primary attraction. Hong Kong has some of the largest and most elaborate malls in the world hosting more than 800 stores in a single location.
In software, commerce is nothing new, and though not every application has ways for people to spend money, a lot of them do. This is especially true as we move into an era where additional, downloadable content is the status quo. The Shopping Tour invites users to shop wherever it’s possible in the software under test to validate that users can engage in commerce smoothly and effectively.
Applied: Chrome is a portal to the Internet where there’s nearly an endless number of ways to spend money. Although testing every vendor isn’t feasible, ensuring that the majority of retailers are accessible and that Google stores won’t have any problems is. Following is a list of the top online retailers based on traffic to their sites.
• eBay (www.eBay.com)
• Amazon (www.amazon.com)
• Sears (www.sears.com)
• Staples (www.staples.com)
• OfficeMax (www.officemax.com)
• Macy’s (www.macys.com)
• NewEgg (www.newegg.com)
• Best Buy (www.bestbuy.com)
The Student Tour
Description: Many students take advantage of the chance to study abroad, and while living in their new destinations, they’ll use local resources to advance their knowledge of their area of expertise. This tour covers all the resources available for tourists such as libraries, archives, and museums.
Similarly, in software, many people try out a new technology and use it for research to increase their understanding of a particular topic. This tour encourages the user to do just that and to take advantage of and test all the features in the software that help gather and organize information.
Applied: Test how well Chrome can collect and organize data from a variety of sources. For example, can users take information from a half-dozen sites and bring it all together in a cloud-based document? Can offline content be uploaded and used effectively?
Suggested Areas to Test
A Student’s Tour of Chrome includes
• Copy & Paste: Can different types of data be transferred using the Clipboard?
• Moving offline content to the cloud: Web pages, images, text, and so on.
• Capacity: Having multiple documents open at once and in different windows.
• Transportation: Moving data across tabs and windows and between different kinds of windows (normal and incognito).
The International Calling Tour
Description: While traveling, making calls back home can be an experience in and of itself. Dealing with international operators, currencies, and credit cards can result in some interesting things.
In software, users might want to interact with the same features (people back home) but from different platforms, privilege levels, and with different settings. This tour focuses on ensuring users get a smooth and reliable experience regardless of where they operate.
Applied: Browse to common sites and use common features, trying out Chrome on different platforms (Windows, Mac, and Linux) if available and with different connection settings in the OS.
Suggested Areas to Test
An International Calling Tour of Chrome includes
• Operating systems: Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Privilege levels: High integrity and low integrity
• Languages: Complex languages and right-to-left languages
• Network options: Proxy, Wi-Fi, wired LAN, and firewalled
The Landmark Tour
Description: “The process was simple. Use the compass to locate a landmark (a tree, rock, cliff face, and so on) in the direction you want to go, make your way to that landmark, and then locate the next landmark, and so on. As long as the landmarks were all in the same direction, you could get yourself through a patch of dense Kentucky woods. The Landmark Tour for exploratory testers is similar in that we will choose landmarks and perform the same landmark through the software that we would through a forest.”
Applied: In Chrome, this tour takes a look at how easily a user can navigate from one landmark to another. Verify users can get to the landmarks, such as different browser windows, opening attachments, settings, and so on.
Suggested Landmarks in Chrome
A Landmark Tour of Chrome includes
• Browser window: This is the main browser window used for browsing the Web.
• Incognito window: The Incognito window is used for browsing under the radar; a trademark cloak-and-dagger character displays in the upper-left corner to notify the user.
• Compact Navigation Bar: This browser window is available from the menu; it has a search box available in the title bar of the window.
• Download Manager: The Download Manager displays a list of the user’s downloaded content.
• Bookmark Manager: The Bookmark Manager is a full window that displays the user’s bookmarks and it supports launching them.
• Developer Tools: These tools are the Task Manager, JavaScript Console, and so on.
• Settings: These settings are launched from the menu in the upper-right corner when you select Options.
• Themes Page: A page where users can personalize the appearance of Chrome OS.
The All Nighter Tour
Description: How far can you go? The All Nighter Tour challenges tourists to test their own endurance by going from attraction to attraction with little or no break in between. “Such tours are tests of the constitution. Can you last? Can you survive the all nighter?”
In software, this tour challenges the product under test to see how long it can last when its features are used over a prolonged period of time. The key is trying not to close anything and continuing one long user experience. This tour can uncover bugs that occur only after a prolonged period of time.
Applied (Chrome): Open lots of tabs, install extensions, change themes, and keep browsing in a single session for as long as feasible. Avoid closing tabs or windows when you’re done with them; just keep opening up more content. If the tour extends into multiple days, keep Chrome open overnight and continue the tour the next day.
Suggested Areas to Test
An All Nighter tour of Chrome includes
• Tabs and windows: Open large numbers of tabs and windows.
• Extensions: Add a large number of extensions and keep them running.
• Duration: Leave everything open for an extended period of time.
The Artisan’s Tour
Description: While some travel for pleasure, others travel for business. This tour examines how easy it is to perform business operations in a tourist’s new destination. Are there local vendors? How much red tape is there to getting started?
In software, this tour looks at how easily users can develop content using the tools in the software under test. In place of local vendors and red tape, a user can take a look at how many tools the software provides in the application and how easy is it to import and export content.
Applied: Chrome has a fair number of tools for JavaScript developers and for web developers who test and run their online content. Use this tour to check out the tools, generate sample scripts, and test online content.
Tools in Chrome
An Artisan’s Tour of Chrome includes
• Developer tools: Look at the page’s elements, resources, and scripts, and enable resource tracking.
• JavaScript Console: Does JavaScript in the Console execute correctly?
• Viewing source code: Is it easy to read through the use of color coding and other help, and is it easy to get to a relevant section?
• Task Manager: Do processes show up correctly and is it easy to see how many resources the web page consumes?
The Bad Neighborhood Tour
Description: “Every city has bad neighborhoods and areas that a tourist is well advised to avoid. Software also has bad neighborhoods—those sections of the code populated with bugs.”
Applied: The focus of Chrome is on a fast and simplified experience browsing the Web, but rich content tends to suffer. When it was first launched, it was reported that even YouTube videos didn’t play correctly, and although significant progress has been made for overcoming these challenges, rich content is still an issue.
Bad Neighborhoods in Chrome OS
A Bad Neighborhood Tour of Chrome includes
• Online video: Hulu, YouTube, ABC, NBC, full-screen mode, and high definition.
• Flash-based content: Games, ads, and presentations.
• Extensions: Test-rich extensions.
• Java applets: Verify Java applets can be run successfully. Yahoo! games are popular examples of Java applets.
• O3D: Verify content written with Google’s own O3D; for example, video calls in Gmail use O3D.
• Multiple instances: Attempt to run multiple instances of rich content in different tabs and windows.
The Personalization Tour
Description: The Personalization Tour shows tourists where they can go to find the largest selection of ways to personalize their experience while traveling. This can include everything from a new pair of sunglasses to rental cars, hired guides, and even clothing boutiques. In software, this tour lets users explore the various ways they can customize their experience and personalize their software to make it uniquely theirs.
Applied: Explore the various ways one can customize Chrome to a particular user’s taste through the use of themes, extensions, bookmarks, settings, shortcuts, and profiles.
Ways to Customize Chrome
A Personalization Tour of Chrome includes
• Themes: Use themes to customize the appearance of Chrome OS.
• Extensions: Download and install extensions to Chrome OS to extend its functionality and appearance.
• Chrome settings: Customize the user’s experience by changing Chrome settings.
• Separation of profiles: Verify that preferences for one user profile aren’t able to propagate to another account.