Example of Exploratory Study - I

Because the nature of the exploratory test is often somewhat abstract, let's review how a typical exploration might proceed for a product, such as a web site. Assume that you are exploring the home page of a web site, which employs options in the left navigation, each revealing further choices when the user mouses over it. Assume also that this is a very early stage of development, so the user interface simply consists of a single screen without any underlying structure or connections. However, the navigation menus function, so the

user can view the menu options underneath each menu heading, as shown in Figure 3-3.

Now let's look at Figure 3-4, which contains an excerpt of a test script for conducting an exploratory test, to see how the test might proceed. You might continue in this vein, having the user attempt to accomplish realistic tasks with much discussion about assumptions and thought process. Alternatively, though, if the web page is in such a preliminary stage that the navigation does