Faulty and buggy apps can never be successful.
That’s why it’s highly recommended to beta test your mobile app before launching it in the app stores. Testing your app for functionality, usability and consistency are a must.
When asking some pertinent questions to your mobile app developers, you might end up adding or removing few features, tweaking the user experience, or can even make some major changes to your app.
Testing the app on different devices, operating systems, data networks, screen resolutions, or input methods are the basics of app testing. However, there are some scenarios which are often ignored and instead, you must ask some questions to your mobile app developer that will help determine whether it’s a quality app you’re building or not.
What happens if I do this or that?
Here are 4 pertinent questions you must ask when your app is in the testing stage:
#1 Is my app ‘idiot proof’?
Not all users will use your app the way you want them to. You will have both novice and experienced users and each one will use the app in a different way.
The impatient users might tap somewhere multiple times, while some might feed in the incorrect details, or some may skip the instructions and not know the flow altogether.
While testing your app, the best practice is to ask your mobile app developer to put themselves in different shoes and use the app in different ways. If you want to be to be more precise, figure out few focus groups (potential customers) and let them use the beta version of your app for a while.
Ultimately, the idea is to create a solid user experience which any kind of user is comfortable using.
#2 What if my app is impacted by an external event?
There is a huge possibility of a user getting a phone call, text message, an email, or any other notification while using your app.
What happens then? Does you app crash or resumes from the same point?
Consider, other scenarios too: what if the user has too many apps open in the background, or doesn’t have enough memory on the phone to let the app perform a task, or worst, the phone’s battery drains out?
Did you forget the possibility of an OS upgrade or change in data network strength, or a data cable insertion and removal?
Hence, it makes sense to put your app through various ‘surprise’ events to find out how the app handles such interruptions. The best practice would be to start testing your app from an early stage. This gives you enough time to test different possibilities.
Don’t wait to ask this question to your mobile app developer at the last stage or just before the launch.
#3 Have you done performance optimization for the mobile app?
Performance of an application can be affected by two variables – server side and user side.
What if there is a problem from the server side and your app is not able to fetch the data? What if the app is not able to connect to data from numerous back end systems? What if your app hogs too much of phone’s memory and consumes excessive bandwidth?
It might be possible that your mobile app is being simultaneously used by a large number of people. How does the app perform when being used consistently or under a load?
All these scenarios can lower the performance of your app, resulting in slow processing or even crashing of app.
To counter the potential risk of loss of app data, operational testing is essential. Operational testing refers to the evaluation of a software application prior to the production phase.
Ask your mobile app developer if they’re testing for operational efficiencies.
#4 Does the app handle localization well?
If you are designing an app for a global market, it is very important to take care of regional traits such as time zone, language, currency, and design preference.
There are many challenges in localizing an app and you should take them in consideration while testing.
Again consider these few scenarios.
What if my western design is not liked in the eastern countries? What happens to my app’s functionality when someone changes the time zone? What happens if a user travels forward across timezone and returns to his/her previous timezone? What if my app user uses right to left language? Does my in-app purchase have options for different currencies?
It’s important to validate all these points.
Ask your mobile app developer if they’ve tested your app against the various languages it supports.
For instance, the word ‘welcome’ is
- Bienvenue in French
- Willkommen in German
- Bienvenida in Spanish
- Hoşgeldiniz in Turkish
- Welkom in Dutch
The length of the text changes in every language, impacting your app’s layout. If your application is multilingual, it needs to be tested in other languages to ensure there are no UI issues due to varying character lengths.
Asking these pertinent questions will not only help with more robust mobile app development, but also make sure you don’t lose your app users due to avoidable events that could have been sorted by just asking a few additional questions.