SYKES Assistance Services Corp

A global leader in customer contact management, SASC provides an array of services and solutions to Fortune 1000 companies in communications, financial services, healthcare, technology transportation and other industries. Since 1977, the company’s mission has been to make their clients more efficient and profitable while improving brand loyalty.

One of the many ways SASC accomplishes this is by developing mobile applications for its clients. In 2011, as the company put the finishing touches on a custom BlackBerry application, Drew Lidkea (Director of Client Relations) and Laura Young (Coordinator of Client Satisfaction) were required to test the usability of the application with real-life users.

As Laura searched for a testing partner, she found that boutique agencies were expensive and time-consuming, whereas outsourcing firms were not equipped with the necessary devices. At that point, she turned her attention to crowdsourcing, where she discovered uTest’s global community of professional testers.

This case study will show how SASC tested the usability of their BlackBerry application with uTest’s community of software-savvy professionals. Topics will include the quality of user feedback, device coverage, uTest’s project management team and more.

Testing Scope and Objectives

Drew explained that the application – a roadside assistance app for a major OEM – had passed with flying colors in terms of functionality…with the in-house staff. But how would non-biased users respond to the application?

“Our primary goal was to get objective feedback from people with no vested interested in our product,” explained Drew. “We thought the app was functional, intuitive and frankly, pretty cool. But we wanted to make sure we weren’t the only ones who felt that way.”

With the help of a dedicated usability expert (there’s one assigned to every usability project), Drew and Laura would establish their testing scope and objectives in terms of the following:

• Devices: For this project, all participants were required to have BlackBerry OS versions 5.0 and up
• Features: All features and functionality of the app were in scope, including installation, setup and others
• Feedback: In addition to free-form comments, testers answered a series of multiple choice questions
• Location: All of the participants were required to be residents of Canada
• Experience: Participants needed to range from smartphone “power users” to novices

With the testing scope and instructions complete, testers began the full-scale review of the application.