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Using Brain Science to Build Better Products - Melissa Fisher

13th January 2023

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Melissa Fisher

Quality Engineering Manager

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Talk Description

I fell into testing by accident. My background was not in tech instead, it was in Brain Science (Neuroscience). It was a subject that focused on the brain and its impact on behaviour and how people think. It may sound like a strange combination, a Neuroscience graduate, then turned tester. However, it has turned out to be the perfect match!

The problem that I have noticed is that sometimes we forget about people and how they work. This means we forget about things like how quickly a user can learn a product or how they might feel when using it. This impacts the business because it changes how likely a person would recommend a product to others or whether they continue to use it.

In this talk, I want to share the knowledge that I have learnt about the brain and its impact on behaviour and how people think so that you can start asking more questions to build better products with people in mind. In the introduction, we explore the structure of the brain and what each of the areas does. Then we’ll go through some exercises to explore how the brain interprets our environment. We will then go on to explore the multi-store memory model, working memory and why we need to consider memory when building products. Then lastly we will explore emotions and how you can use them as a tool to guide your testing.

What you’ll learn

By the end of this talk, you'll be able to:

Four facts about the structure of the brain and what each of the brain areas do
How we register information through our senses, process this information and then perform an action
The importance of simplification, so our brains find it easier to process the products we use
The multi store memory model, working memory and why we need to consider it when building products
Ten emotion paths to help guide our testing
When we understand people we can use that knowledge to build products with people in mind

Melissa Fisher

Quality Engineering Manager

Melissa enjoys talking about all things software testing! She is a blog writer, author of a book called Testing Stories and an International Speaker. In her spare time she is working on creating a nature garden.