Every organization strives to create digital experiences that delight. However, this is far from easy in our increasingly complex and hyper-connected world. Software is everywhere, with new versions of apps and systems rolling out continuously and at a rapid pace, coupled with billions of devices being digitized and connected to the cloud. This has created a labyrinth of interconnected systems and software. And with research from Amazon Web Services that businesses lose 35% of sales due to a bad user experience (UX), it’s vital to get this right.
With digital experiences determining success, organizations must prioritize software quality. However, this requires evaluating UX through the users’ perspective and understanding how both this experience and business outcomes are affected by the application’s technical behavior. This visiblity into the online experience then provides a roadmap for improving the UX and the resulting business impact.
As organizations look to transform software quality and gain a competitive advantage, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming front and center in the rush to achieve these objectives. Below are three ways the intelligence allows organizations to find, fix and predict where issues are before they impact the UX.
1. Intelligent automation engine
Testing a digital app or software from the user perspective requires an intelligent automation engine that accesses the application as a user would, taking control of a machine, using the app to exercise workflows, and collecting data along the way. This allows the engine to automatically create paths to detect bugs, untested environments and evaluate areas that previously had bugs and issues
2. Intelligent bug hunting and test-coverage
Finding software bugs is a long-standing issue that often slows down the release of new software and directly impacts the UX. Intelligent testing utilizes a combination of bug hunting and coverage algorithms, AI and analytics that exponentially expand the coverage area evaluated. The algorithms hunt for application defects based on automatically generated user journeys, and coverage algorithms select the path furthest away from others that have been executed. The bug-hunting algorithm continues learning from data correlations to refine the coverage and helps identify root causes and auto-fix defects.
3. Performance testing
Another vital part of improving the UX is testing the performance of digital properties, as bugs and problems can creep in. Organizations must continuously monitor the digital experience over time to improve the UX. With AI-driven test automation, the algorithm continually processes the data, learning and looking for trends. This intelligence enables organizations to understand if, for example, a change to a workflow or content will result in an outage. With these insights, enterprises have a mechanism to address problems before they have a chance to negatively impact the experience.
Mission accomplished
Our software automation platform is used across various industries spanning automotive, aerospace and defense, financial services, healthcare, retail & telecoms to ensure digital properties perform as expected. And with software now pervasive in modern warfare, customers include the US Army. The agency deploys Keysight’s intelligent automation to test how the software performs from the user’s perspective and consider all the different conditions and variables that can occur, such as atmospheric conditions and an antenna’s line of sight over the earth’s curvature. Remote teams use the non-invasive approach to automatically test the user interface of secure systems without needing access to the source code.
With AI-driven automation, every organization can test real user journeys and feed those insights into the development lifecycle, continuously improving the quality of software systems. This intelligence is firmly cementing AI as a strategic resource to optimize the UX and provide clarity on how software directly impacts business outcomes. From mission-critical scenarios, to optimizing e-commerce sites for retailers, to ensuring connected healthcare and telemedicine deliver, there isn’t a scenario where improving the UX isn’t vital.
Think UX always
For those organizations not laser-focused on the UX, it’s worth noting that Google was founded on 10 core principles, with rule #1 stating ‘focus on the user and all else will follow.’ This is a sentiment Keysight wholeheartedly embraces and supports. Irrespective of the industry, providing the best user experience is paramount.
Keysight is a long-tenured leader in test and measurement and through our Eggplant software automation platform, we provide every organization with a way to continuously optimize the digital experience. Learn more about our AI-driven approach to software testing automation and how it can turn testing into a revenue-generating function.
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