Testing - Get Involved

mindminder has been through an extensive development lifecycle and is nearing a maturity for launch as a product.

During mindminder's development, limited human interaction and synthetic data has been used  to determine the functionality, features and general approach to User/Carer interaction. However there's only so much that can be foreseen, simulated and understood in how real Carers or Users may use mindminder in the real world.  For example everyone is different and what Users or Carers appreciate, thrive off, get bugged by, or really dislike will differ from person-to-person.

Spoken dialogue that's too slow for some Users may not be slow enough for others; 
Question content may be too limited; User accents or background noise may mean collected answers cannot be deciphered; the format of Carer input/User content creation may not be straightforward or page layouts may be confusing; the menu system may not make sense; different devices may even the storage needs of mindminder have not yet been fully demonstrated yet.

What Does Testing Require?

What do I need to do as a "Tester" I hear you asking.
Well mindminder has been developed to be as simple to use as possible and Testing is hopefully just using mindminder as if you were a Carer or User, or both.

Step 1. Create a Carer Profile
  • Create a new "Carer" profile
  • This could be as yourself or using a false character
  • Add personal details and/or a profile image to identify yourself.
STep 2. Join (or create) an Organisation
  • Organisations securely protect User and Carer data from others.
  • You need to share an Organisation with any Users you interact with
  • You could join an existing Organisation (details will be provided)
  • Or you could create and join your own dedicated Organisation (real or fake for testing purposes)
Step 3. Link with (or Create) a User
  • Once a member of a shared Organisation, you can link with Users 
  • Or if you create a User you can assign them  membership of one of your Organisations.
  • Carers and Users can join more than one Organisation
Step 4. Interact with mindminder as Carer, User or Both.
  • Login with your Carer account and create or manage personalised conversation content.
  • ... or ...
  • Login as a User and interact with mindminder's conversations.

Testing mindminder involves using mindminder as it would be used normally, either as a Carer or User or both. The Testing period will be as thorough as can be offered by Testers. You may wish to start using mindminder as you see the real value to you or a loved-one however during the Testing phase you would need to be aware of some limitations in functionality, and the fact that aspects may be changing to reflect feedback.

As a Tester you could pose as a single or multiple Carers or Users, put genuine or fake information in, use mindminder as extensively as you find time to support... one conversation a week or hundreds per day is absolutely fine as either is acceptable.

If, during Testing, something breaks there's absolutely no repercussions as this is the objective; there's lots to consider during development and you may have found a way to do something that wasn't anticipated in the design and therefore what you did isn't wrong, it's exactly what testing is supposed to reveal.  If you're inquisitive as to "what happens if..." then even better... even if an error message is provided, did it make sense and what happened next or did you get into a dead-end?

If you would like to get involved in helping test mindminder, please provide your details below and  I'll be back in touch with an update as soon as possible.