People are becoming increasingly accustomed to using mobile for browsing the Internet. Right from shopping online, to reading news and accessing information from the web, all these tasks are performed using a Smartphone and/or tablets. This does not mean that desktop and other computer systems are not being used, or aren’t good enough, for carrying out online activities.
Sure, even desktop computers are being used for web browsing, however, mobile device usage seem to have exceeded desktop usage. With ever-increasing use of mobile devices, it is important that your website can address the mobile users’ needs. But, considering the fact that 54 percent of the digital media time people spent is on mobile apps, leveraging mobile application development can help expand your reach and maximize your profits.
It’s good, if you already have a mobile app. If not, then you should develop one without wasting any more time. But, what if you are unable to achieve expected results after launching an app? This means that there is some issue with your application – that might be stopping you from achieving your goal. But, user testing your mobile app can help you overcome any issues with the application.
In this post, I’ll help you explore what does user testing a mobile app means. Most importantly, I will share some mistakes that users commonly make when user testing an application.
User Testing a Mobile App: What is it and Why you need it?
The best way to test a mobile app is to know how consumers might react after using your app. Especially when you’re creating a mobile application for users benefit, knowing about how users are interacting with the app will help you improve and deliver an enhanced user experience. This is exactly what you achieve by ‘user testing’ an application.
Making use of mobile user testing will help you listen to your user’s mind – how they use their app and what changes they want in it. This saves your time into thinking of strategies (and methods) to improve mobile UX and increase its usability.
Essentially, conducting user tests on your app will make you understand what normal people (i.e. one who will be posting reviews about your app in the app store) expect from your application.
Mistakes You Should Avoid While User Testing Your App
1. Not providing a walk-through to explain user testing process.
There are several user testing tools available online. But remember that not all of those tools are same, and function in a different manner. And so, there’s a greater possibility that your users might not know how to get started with the process of user testing your mobile app via the tool you are using.
But, providing a walk-through to explain how your app users can make use of the ‘user testing tool’ can help them understand the process of testing the application.
2. Not giving users enough flexibility to test the app.
You must provide your app users enough flexibility to test the application. Doing so, will give app users a sense of ownership and they will share their views and opinions about improving the application in a better way.
3. Not choosing the right user testing tool.
Keep in mind that how efficiently your app will tested will depend on how good your user testing tool is. So, be wary about choosing the right user testing tool. Below are a few things you must take into account before selecting a user testing tool:
- Choose one that helps get fastest user feedback.
- Comes with wireframes and prototypes to enable real users understand what works and what not.
- Allows to test on many different devices and mobile platforms.
4. Thinking of Is “user Testing” and “usability testing” to be same.
Often novice users believe “user testing” to be usability testing. There’s no denying that user testing a mobile app help determines app usability, but there’s a lot more to user testing than merely providing data that helps boost the usefulness of a mobile app.
User testing also helps you test the app for emotional engagement. And enables you to know others feel about your app, and are they able to achieve what they’ve expected from the app and so on. Simply put, user testing the app will let you know factors that can help keep your users engaged with your mobile application.
5. Testing the app after getting it published on app store.
It is highly recommended that you must user test the app before it gets published in the app store. That’s because, getting user reviews for your app will help refine its functioning before making it available for public use.
And, providing your target users with an end-product that meet their expectations and requirements, will help create a good first impression and thereby attract more users to your app model.
Conclusion
This post will help you understand what does user testing a mobile application means. In addition, you’ll get to know about some common mistakes we tend to make while performing user tests on an app.
About The Author
