The mobile market and apps have billions of users, there are billions of apps available, and they are changing our lives every day. Once you have an app and are new to this industry, you will be wondering how you will be wondering at the beginning of developing your app, especially how you can do the user testing the right way.
What are App Users Testing & Why Is It Essential?
Any user interface difficulties or bugs, or glitches in an app will result in the Users losing interest and uninstalling them because there’s always going to be a better Replacement of your app. Doing thorough user testing will help you resolve all these complications of your app.
It will be dumb to compromise the application quality; that is precisely why you need usability tests before releasing them to the market.
- Before you start performing user testing of your app on android/iOS, you must have explicit knowledge of designing mobile interfaces with the best usability of an app on mobile. If you don’t, I suggest you take a course about it before you jump into anything.
- Have you ever wondered which apps a mobile user spends more time on in a day? They frequently use five apps of their choosing on a regular day. And they spend 89% of their time on these apps on their mobile.
- Do you understand the effect mobile applications have on our life on a day-to-day basis? Hundreds of Billions of apps are created and downloaded every year. The mobile app industry is ever-growing and huge.
- Even though our technology is advanced and Mobile, the latest version of applications has come a long way from where it started.
- It is said that mobile technologies and their capabilities limit the mobile application’s growth and its technology. So you must have a clear understanding of how you can do user testing of mobile applications. Here are the certified steps to do the mobile application user testing in the right way.
1. Research
Research is always the first step. The best way for you to conduct the usability test among your choosing audience has to be according to the knowledge you perceived in the beginning. So before you rush off to do the things you are unfamiliar with, you should do your homework. You can do your research and find loopholes and understand some of the problems just by studying research.
2. Define Your Goals
You must understand your goals before you do anything. Understanding the kind of outcome you expect from user testing will give a clear view of what you have to do to make it possible to create your ideal application of purpose.
There are several type of usability tests available
- Individual monitored method
- Remote user testing
- A/B testing
- Eye movement tracking
- Focus groups
You can even do user testing even before the development. That way, you can understand and explore how the app will work in the market and understand what the general users expect from your application. You can also understand what kind of competition you have Before you develop your app. And doing user testing before you even Develop the app will make you wonder how you can differ from your competition.
So set out a competitive analysis by selecting your group and analyzing the group’s needs; that way, you can clearly understand your goals.
3. In-person Or Remote Testing?
To understand your new application’s pros and cons, you should choose how you want to conduct the user testing. Choose what you wish to remote testing or in person?
If it’s within-person testing, you understand how the users react to the application in real life. You can analyze their behavior and their feelings when they are using the app.
You should record the process on a video camera to do your research and understand more. It is so much better, and it gives the advantage to watch the participant in person than just to do the testing on online video conferences.
We all know people differently because of their culture. To understand the cultures and society and how it impacts your applications, and you should travel a lot to make sure you are doing everything you can to understand how the users from different worlds perceive the app. You can set out a group of participants from other places and create a user testing session on each area. Once you get the feedback, dive in and get the best out of it.
4. Recruit Your Participants
Your goals will not achieve, and your user testing will fail if you choose the wrong audience for the usability testing program.
Understand the audience you need to target and recruit the participants according to the target. Once you understand the target audience, then you can move on and create a list of characters your participants must-have.
This will help filter people according to their behavior.
You shouldn’t fail in the value of the testing. Or else everything will go straight to waste, and you might end up starting at the bottom.
5. Understand Each Of The User’s Unique Character And Behavior
Do not forget about this factor because it is crucial to select your participants according to their behavior. Location, gender, culture, age, and educational qualities of the participant. It is vital while selecting them. It will be payable to choose a team of people who already have used the apps competition. Because they will already have an idea about the app, and they will know what they want. They can even suggest to you the kind of changes they expect to make the app more useful.
Recruit your audience and separate them into groups based on the criteria like gender, sex, and age. The participants will make you understand the common characteristics of your targeted audience. Make use of this information to get the best outcome. Also, don’t forget about android and iOS users, as they will have entirely different experiences while testing the app.
Schedule your testing and do the test in a confined place where there is more silence and calm. Interview before they join the testing. All of this will help in recruiting the best participants for your app testing.
6. Prepare User Testing Tools And Materials
Here are some user testing tools that might help you in the process
Note down the tasks you want your participants to attend, create a script to follow through the test. Printout a feedback survey for the participants to attend. Add questions like “how much help was to you?” or “how easy was it to use the app.” Put a scale on the survey for each question from difficult to easy. And watch out how they respond to each of the problems.
7. Dry Run Your Test First
You should do a user test on your own before you do the user testing with other participants. That will make us understand and avoid any difficulties in the process of the usability test. You can also ask your employees or co-worker’s or friends to test as the user to prevent problems or challenges initially. This way, you can fit and add more valuable content.
8. Analyze And Resolve The Issues Of Your Application
Lastly, it’s time to analyze the feedback, recordings, and anything you have kept from the participants. Understanding how a difficulty came on to the users and finding out your problems’ root is complicated.
Conducting sessions on individuals and finding out patterns will give you an idea of the problem. Once you have completed the analysis, you must cover and remove all the bugs and glitches found in the applications.
Analyze and resolve the product’s issues, repeat the usability test, and repeat this process until the product’s errors are entirely fixed.
Conclusion
The application will run properly only If you do the user testing well. It has helped you resolve at least 90% of the application difficulties. You can also develop your own modified techniques and strategies for usability testing for your app. I hope this article helps you understand how we can do the best user testing for your apps.
Squash Apps encourage you to operate user testing to improve user satisfaction and create a positive impact on your business. Happy testing!
