How to test a mobile app before launch ?

After months spent planning and developing your dream mobile app, all you want is to ship it as soon as possible. These feelings are completely understandable and that’s the mindset  you need to have as an entrepreneur.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently

–Warren Buffett

The same concept applies to your mobile application. If you don’t spend some time testing what you have built you, can easily lose the trust of your target audience and that’s the most valuable thing you have as an entrepreneur. 

Testing should be part of all mobile app milestones from ideation to launch  to ensure both the usability of your product and its marketability to your target audience. 

There are over 50+ tests that you can cover for your mobile app depending on your industry, technology that you are using and the complexity of your mobile app . In this article, we will cover the 4 most important tests that you must do before shipping your mobile app to the market along with some tools that you can use to speed up the process. 

Technical Testings 

Once your mobile app is finally developed, your first reflex should be to make sure that your tech team has done its job correctly. Your Quality assurance team should look under the hood and generate reports of each major testing. The most important are: 

• Compatibility: This test ensures that your mobile app is optimal on different devices based on their size, screen resolution, version, hardware, etc.
• Performance: This test pinpoints application reaction and behaviour under real world scenarios and environments. Whether it’s crashes, connexions, offline behaviour or stability. 
• Security: This test should be highly considered even on the simplest mobile application having authentications. This Test analyses threats  that could happen. 

Here are some tools that your tech team can use: 

• Compatibility : CrossBrowserTesting, Firebase test lab, Browserstack
• Performance: Newrelic, firebase performance , Browserstack, firebase crashlytics 
• Security: google Nogofail, Veracode 

Functional testing 

Functional testing is the process of making sure that all your mobile app functionalities work as expected and according to the requirement specifications. 

There are huge benefits doing these tests which are :

• Making sure that the expected user experience is well respected
• Pinpoint bugs or misconfiguration during the user journey 
• Compare the output data of your testing with what you expected 
• Check the interactions ( buttons, animations … ) of your mobile app 

These tests should be conducted by a technical person who was involved during the development process while having a clear understanding of the industry. 

At Time To Fame, it is our responsibility to conduct these tests along with the startup. We have created a document called UAT ( User Acceptance Test) where we showcase all test cases along with the expected results to make sure that all functionalities are working as expected. 

You can download our UAT test document by clicking on the button bellow ! 

Some great tools that you can also use for functional testing : Appium , Selendroid,  

Usability testing 

Usability testing ensures that your mobile app offers a good browsing experience, great looking and intuitive interface for your target audience. Your mobile application usability is judged based on these 3 main criterias: 

• Useful: deliver tangible value to its user persona ( remove pain, improve productivity  …) 
• Accessible: Can be easily understood and used by its user persona 
• Desirable: Looks good enough to make the user wants to use it in a regular basis

Usability Testing is a very tricky test since you can always find ways to improve your app. You can end up spending months at this stage without knowing when is the best time to put your mobile app on market. As we usually hear as entrepreneurs

“ Better done than perfect “ 

–sheryl sandberg

Our solution at Time To Fame is to find a very small number of testers who represent the mobile app user persona and conduct focus groups with them where we analyse in real time their behaviour while browsing on the app. That way, we benefit from the most valuable feedback in a very short time lapse. The video below explains exactly the process : 

Some tools that you can also use for usability testing : Loop11, userzoom, 

Certification testing 

IOS, android or windows have set some requirements for the mobile apps published on their stores to guarantee a user experience adapted to device shape, device built in functionalities and terms of use. Everyone in your team should be aware of the requirements, from your designer to meet the platform standards to your legal team to take into consideration terms of use. 

Neglecting those can cost you a bad user experience or even a removal of your mobile app from the stores. 

At Time To Fame, all stakeholders have a clear idea of the requirements needed on each platform starting from our design team who adapts the design to each platform before the hand off to the tech team. 

Here are the main takeaways for each platform: 

IOS : 

• Your mobile app meets the requirements of the  Human Interface Guidelines.
• Your mobile app should have a unique name, be in a specific category and provides a link for feedback from the developer 

Android: 

• Your mobile app should follow the developer content policy
• The design team should meet the requirements set in the  user interface guidelines  
• The tech team should follow the security guidelines and a version control in the case of publishing an updated version of your mobile app

To wrap up, testing your mobile app is the extra little effort which will make the difference when you face the market. Keep in mind that you can easily fall into an endless testing phase trying to continuously improve your mobile app on your own. 

At Time To Fame, we know what tests to make before shipping your mobile app to the market and benefit the sooner possible of your users’ feedback which are the most valuable ones. 

Shoot us a message on our website www.timetofame.com, we will be happy to discuss with you your next mobile app project ! 

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Here are the top 3 checks you’ll want to do before signing off on your app,Testing for Design. Before submitting your app to the stores, the first thing you should check is aesthetic,Testing Usability,Testing Settings – Security and Access.