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Mobile App Testing – Secret to Successful App Functionality and User Experience
In this day and age it is becoming more difficult to make a successful mobile phone
application, let alone sustain its popularity. The smart players have identified the secret of
the success, and it is no far from the experience that the app gives to the user. It is not what
the app’s supercomputing capabilities and feature-rich manifestos that appeal to the users,
but in fact what really does matter is how the app gets the work done for the user, plain and
simple. Mobile app testing is a definitely must if you want your app to consistently perform
and get the job done, and thus be in the must-have wish lists of the users.
Why App Testing Really Matters?
A successful app is not which only works, but is one which works the way you want it to work.
App testing ensures that the mobile app not only works as you intend it to work but also
fulfills the needs of the users. Intensive app testing actually provides an assurance that the
final product that reaches in the hands of the users would be of paramount quality and would
sustain some serious hammering at the hands of the users. After all, who likes to get poor
reviews and bugs raised by the users? App testing is not an overnight effect; it is a process
which if done correctly and consistently will improve app functionality, and hence user
experience.
Start with the Basics: Ensure the App Functions as Intended
At the core of any app the real deal is its functionality. You want users to use your app
because it functions well and makes their lives easy. Any break in functionality is a break in
deed that you promised your customers of. Three things that all successful apps do is
function accurately, consistently, and quickly. All elements that require user inputs should be
tested at the beginning to ensure that the app correctly responds to the user interactions.
Additionally, the app should also pass through the test routines that check the internal
functionalities that process the user inputs. Yes you have an app that is a potential hit among
the users, but what use is it if it can’t even correctly add up 2 and 2.
Don’t Miss the UI/UX: It Makes All the Difference
The user experience is not just a one-time interaction, in fact it is a journey; the smoother the
journey, the happier is the user. Test to find the corners and detours which your customers
would hate to come across, instead build highways to let them zoom on full throttle through
to make the journey quite remarkable. From the start of using the app through to achieving
all goals set before the start by the user the journey of the user experience should be kept
quick, smooth and easy. User experience is the core of any app that successfully hits with the
users. Your app may have minor bugs here and there, but it all can be flushed out when your
users feel satisfied and the experience leaves them wanting for more. This increases the
chances of the user returning to your app manifolds, and it has its perks of getting more users
to use your app.
Mobile Devices Add to the Mobile App Testing Woes
The biggest challenge that comes in mobile app testing is having a consistent performing app
across all devices. There are innumerable mobile devices which the users would use to access
your app, and thus all the devices which you would like to have your app supported on must
be considered during mobile app testing. Now, you can either set a limit to the number of
supported devices, which would also directly put your app in danger of not working
consistently on other devices, or you can go all out and test your app on as many devices as
you can. And, of course, having all the physical devices is not cheap. You need to have an
alternative approach for device testing. For the test teams which do not have physical
devices to test with there’s a good thing that we have App Emulators for testing the app on
mobile phone emulations. Albeit the app emulators may not be as effective as the physical
device testing, but they do get the work done quite efficiently.
Testing, Testing, and some more Testing!
Moving forward with the three key principles of mobile app testing, i.e. Functionality, UI/UX,
and consistent performance across all devices, a solid test plan will significantly add quality
assurance to your applications. With the test plan you assure your team of releasing only the
product with paramount quality which will reflect your technological and design expertise to
the users. Start with guerilla testing where you randomly test all the features and
functionality of the app by breaking it open, and try to find as many bugs as you can in the
first outing. From here on you may proceed to in-depth testing by following technical test
cases and use cases so that you cover all the nooks and corners of the application which may
have been missed during guerilla test phase. The in-depth test cycles consider the UI/UX in
detail to iron out all the glitches that may appear while continuously using the app over long
periods of time.
Lastly, since we are striving for smooth user journey in our app, our code should be bug free
and response quickly during UIs flows. In such conditions we need strict technical tests using
physical devices, Emulators or a combination of both. The technical tests are done to get a
comprehensive report of the performance of the app across various devices.
Besides these, you have enough opportunities to use cloud services that offers you
automated testing as well as real devices testing with superb simulations. No doubt, a real
device testing is unparalleled one and can give you exact clues of the performance of your
apps in the real field or real world. Therefore, try to have some highly popular used devices
and testing your app with real world users along with your mobile app development team.
Try as you may, but there is no avoiding mobile app testing.