Testperson

Testperson refers to a hypothetical or anonymized individual used in testing, demonstrations, tutorials, and data sets. The term is used across software development, user research, and documentation to illustrate interactions, workflows, or data flows without using real persons.

In software testing, testpersons simulate user behavior in scripted scenarios, share consistent identifiers, and help testers verify UI, accessibility, and data handling. In usability studies, participants may be recruited as test subjects and assigned pseudonyms, such as Testperson, to protect privacy or to standardize reporting. In documentation and sample data, Testperson often appears with attributes like name, email, address, and role to demonstrate forms or APIs.

Variants and usage vary by language and context; in German-language contexts the literal term Testperson is common, while English uses test user or test subject. Some organizations also use synthetic or dummy data to avoid privacy issues.

Criticism and best practices: relying on a single archetype like Testperson can bias testing results; it is recommended to use diverse personas and data sets representing different demographics and edge cases. When real data is used, ensure compliance with privacy laws by masking identifiers or using synthetic data.

See also: dummy data, synthetic data, persona, usability testing, test data.