One of the responsibilities I take very seriously in testing is protecting the "soul" of the product I work on. If people hate using it and I have not shared the reasons why I believe they will and reported that, I have not done a good job as a tester. To explain what I mean by my unapologetic anthropomorphism of software, I want to get into my favorite and least favorite software of all time and why.

Top 3
1. Adobe Photoshop-My love of this product is so insane, and NO, it isn't just because I participated in the Photoshop 5 bug hunt and won an Ikea gift card, although, Swedish furniture doesn't hurt. Before I totally show my age, here are the reasons I love Photoshop.
  a) The uses are limited to your imagination. It doesn't TRY to guess exactly what you are doing.
  b) Plays well with others. Saves in many formats.
  c) Truely one of the most innovative products ever, and remains a true origional by continually adding new things such as "align layers by content" and the new "selection" tools.
  d) Is simple or complicated, depends on what you are doing.
  e) If I take your pictures you'll never have acne, wrinkles, or bad undereye circles again (unless you want them). Trust me, if I take your picture, it is my job to make you look hot. I've been told that if the software thing doesn't work out, I should go do photos for Playboy. One side effect of this is that I picked up my boyfriends Maxim magazine and couldn't stop pointing out the Photoshop work that wasn't very good, and which tool they used. I was so engrossed in what post processing they did that I forgot to be at all jealous. Well, with Photoshop, I TOO can be a Maxim girl on print anytime I want. Did you know, I'm a software tester AND bikini model? Ok, maybe not in real life.

2. Google Mail (gmail)-While this has been beta since Orville Rednebacher was a boy, I LOVE this email program. There are a few things I'd like improved, such as notification software for the Mac, but all in all, I've never used better email anywhere at any price.
   a) Free (well, ad supported).
   b) Web Based.
   c) Archive and free space. I no longer have to use work arounds to manage my mail. This is a huge timesaver. Microsoft Outlook is even more of a clown due to gmail putting it to shame on efficiency alone, and for free.
   d) Easy to search.
   e) Handles threads nicely.
   f) Doesn't have fancy features, because it did the simple ones right. So, do you really need rules if you can instead manage your email most reasonably with just archive? They fixed a problem for 80% of users correctly instead of spending all the time on the 20% extreme users.

3. StumbleUpon plug-in for Firefox-This is a plug-in where you tell it your interests and it introduces you to websites based on that, and the voting of other people.
   a) Very interactive.
   b) Free!
   c) Community Based.
   d) Helps me learn and is never static.

Bottom 3
1. MySpace-While I understand what is good about a free ad-supported, widely searchable website, using it just sucks. It has the soul of a drug addicted 13 year old runaway who is walking the street trying to earn enough for dinner. It is so sad that I want to rescue it and feed it a sandwich.
   a) The most annoying ads found anywhere online.
   b) No quality to speak of. In fact, if anyone besides Tom were employed there, maybe they might do some testing before bringing their site down each day.
   c) Worst Blogging Client Ever.
   d) Have I mentioned that they could use some testing?

2. Microsoft Outlook with special focus on the Calendaring System-My gut level hatred for this product is so severe that if I don't take asprin before thinking about it, blood vessles may burst in my head. Let me guess how this was tested: This code is 100% covered by automation! Brilliant.
   a) Archiving email is needlessly messy.
   b) Horrid choice of defaults. Setup is annoying.
   c) You must get and respond to email for everything that goes in your calendar? This is perhaps the most braindead implementation I've ever been forced to use. Each time I get new "notification" or have to sift through the 50 notifications just to get meeting attendance updated in my calendar, I curse the name of Bill and whomever let this terrible terrible design spec stand.
   d) When launching the product, I wish it just had the following dialog: "Would you like to spend each day micromanaging your email and calendar?"  Yes would launch Outlook. No would launch gmail.
   e) We paid for this?  Really?
   f) Never ever change your name or use a Mac. Trust me, this will not go well. That is thinking WAY outside the box.
   g) Since I hate Outlook, how about the web client directly to our Exchange server instead? Oops, it's so limited that it is difficult to set up any meetings. Bummer.

3. Web Services done badly in general. Every company is getting involved in web services. As you can tell, most web services that do well are ad based, or based on a percentage model (like e-bay) principle. If you are taking a percentage for offering hosting, it is best to have below a certain limit be free, or some portion as free to support the building of a community. Provide something for free, and charge for bigger things. Some people might think I'm a communist for feeling this way, but you have to contribute something to generate good will. I'm not suggesting giving away the farm, but seeing people like a walking ATM is crappy and it makes everyone feel bad. It also makes you less likely to be able to build something community based online.

The point of this blog is as follows. How does the software make you feel? Is it so good that you see it as a friend and start to think of it as having feelings? I've told people before that gmail was feeling cranky or lazy today, then then I quickly forget any wrongdoings.  Does it feel like the creepy uncle who you wish would be out of town next Thanksgiving? If I talk about Outlook, it's just being a facist jerk again (as usual). I have no forgiveness or love for it, and mercy is for the weak. I will only use it when forced to, and will work against using it whenever a chance comes up.

Yes, I think this is part of valid diciplined software testing. There is so much more to testing than "Does it do what you need it to do?" The question "Do you want to use it again?" is even more important.