What knowledge about GUI standards/design a test analyst should have?

Question

I am a software tester who works on a newly developing software product. Sometimes I feel the GUIs are not very user friendly but could not justify as I do not have enough facts/knowledge on GUI standards and usability principles (ie:how a good menu should look like etc) .

What sort of a knowledge you suggest that I should gain? ie:Should it be on usability testing? Usability design? Usability analysis? or anything else?

What kind of formal qualifications (ie:certification exams) I can gain?

Kind regards, Saku

Answer 1

I don't know any certification on the subject (interested, if you find one!), but start with these books:

• A Project Guide to UX Design: For user experience designers in the field or in the making
• Designing interfaces

They are quite basic books that will give you a lot of initial information. From there you can keep on going.

Also, don't give feedback like "it's not good". Make measurable comments that can help the designers know: What is wrong and Why is it wrong, so they can work on the fix.

Answer 2

You might also want About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design

The GUI standards for the various operating systems would also be helpful. Microsoft publishes the Windows user experience guide and Apple publishes the Mac user experience guide. There may also be UX guides for various Linux systems.

Since you are testing it might be useful to look into incorporating some heuristic evaluation techniques.