How To Conduct Mobile App User Testing
App Development
18Jan 2021
Mobile app development processes involve tons of things, and amid that process, user testing is often neglected. However, this step is essential for your app’s performance & success. This step should be performed during the app development process and post-development as well. In general, user testing eliminates the issues related to bugs and optimizes your app’s UX.
If you have already conducted this process, getting started with your mobile app testing can feel frightening. How do you perform your app’s user testing? When should you begin with user testing? These are the ordinary questions that have usually crossed your mind. However, you are in the right place, in case you are wondering. This guide will explain everything you need to know about mobile app user testing and its workings.
Define User Testing
User testing can be referred to as the process of testing the mobile app’s interface and functions, product, website, or service. The aim is to determine if the app is ready for launch. You’re most likely checking your app’s usability as people perform specific tests in a real-life testing environment.
Why Perform Usability Testing?
If you are already involved in the whole development process from start to end, you certainly can’t test your app usability concerning biases. Tests must be performed by users who are neutral and are unfamiliar with its working.
User testing is a must from a UI & UX design perspective. Even if your app’s design & layout are perfect, you’ll need to perform usability tests to verify your hypothesis.
User testing is a continuous process, and it shouldn’t stop even if your app is live. It’s one of the best ways to constantly enhance your app’s UI/UX design, mainly if you are out with new upgrades and changes.
How To Perform Mobile App User Testing In 6 Steps
This is a stepwise guide to help you perform your app’s user testing. These steps are described in a way that can be tailored to fit any app or development project.
Step 1: Define Your Objectives
The first step in user testing is to define your objectives. What do you want to test exactly?
Your usability testing objectives will change based on where your app is in the development cycle. For instance, app developers will run tests before the actual development phase starts. These tests will revolve around your target market’s discovery, exploration, & user research and expectations in your app.
Concept testing & card sorting are 2 famous ways to see how users will engage with your app’s structure, features, & hierarchy.
While running tests during the app development process, the aim should be on user experience validation.
Things might look good and make sense during your app’s wireframing; you must test those theories from a UI/UX viewpoint once your team has applied those elements.
Usability testing is not about collecting generic feedback for your app. You should be using these tests to recognize specific issues. So focus your goals around this.
Step 2: Determine the Testing Method
You’ll need to determine how you’re going to perform the tests. There are several ways to make this happen. For the most part, user testing can be divided into the following categories:
- In-person Moderated
- In-person Unmoderated
- Remoted Moderated
- Remote Unmoderated
Moderated sessions usually offer intense insights as you can ask questions & get reviews and follow-up with testers in real-time. The drawback here is that it’s not natural for users. If you’re trying to imitate real-world situations, app users won’t have any guidance on real-time communication with a 3rd-party while using the app.
In-person testing has some challenges too. It’s more labor-intensive & you’ll have to deal with scheduling. Some participants are pressured to say the right thing when they’re being observed in-person while being more honest with remote feedback.
Unmoderated remote sessions are the simplest method to get the possible tests done for a reduced cost. You’ll even get to test users in a more natural environment, but you lose the ability to communicate in real-time.
Step 3: Choose The Participants
It’s now time to find genuine users to participate in your tests. Choosing random people won’t get you accurate test results.
By now, you have recognized a target market for your app. But look beyond the demographics such as age, sex, location, and marital status. Behavioral targeting is more fruitful here. So search for users who are already using a similar app to yours.
Hiring participants with an interest and experience in what your app is trying to achieve will have more value than a random user.
Step 4: Ready The Testing Materials & Environment
Once you’ve hired testers, it’s time to prepare for the test.
What will you exactly test? That goes back to step 1, where you have an objective for the user to accomplish.
Set up a real-life scenario for your users. For example, below are some objectives you could list for an eCommerce app test:
- Look for a Red blouse
- Include an XL shirt in your shopping cart
- Create a user profile
- Finish a purchase that qualifies for free shipping.
- Save your billing information for future purchases
- Finish a purchase with your card stored on file
Here, the idea is to give your participants clear instructions but let them naturally engage with your app & its usability.
Just to ensure you find a platform & finalize your testing performance before you begin.
Step 5: Run The Test
After all the work, finally, it’s time to run the tests for your app.
However, this is the easiest step in the process. If you followed everything in the process perfectly, there’s not much to do here. Your participants will be hired & have the testing materials to finish the desired objectives.
Each testing should end with debriefing & follow-up questions. Even if the test is remote & unmoderated, you can ask those questions to your participants through email or via the testing platform. This is an essential part of the design process, not to be ignored.
Follow-up questions & feedback should be completed promptly after the test, while everything is still fresh in the user’s mind.
Step 6: Examine & Adjust
After experimenting, you must examine and analyze the results. Besides the user’s direct feedback, you should go back & analyze measurable data. For instance, how long did it take them to finish one step of a specific task? The time taken to finish the job could also be a sign of how engaged a participant was with your app. These metrics are always useful.
The Bottom Line
User testing is essential for your app’s success. It’s one of the critical steps in the design phase as well. Its value shouldn’t be underestimated whether you’re still prototyping or preparing for launch. Just follow these steps for your user testing process if you are still wondering how to get started.
Harnil Oza is the CEO & Founder of Hyperlink InfoSystem. With a passion for technology and an immaculate drive for entrepreneurship, Harnil has propelled Hyperlink InfoSystem to become a global pioneer in the world of innovative IT solutions. His exceptional leadership has inspired a multiverse of tech enthusiasts and also enabled thriving business expansion. His vision has helped the company achieve widespread respect for its remarkable track record of delivering beautifully constructed mobile apps, websites, and other products using every emerging technology. Outside his duties at Hyperlink InfoSystem, Harnil has earned a reputation for his conceptual leadership and initiatives in the tech industry. He is driven to impart expertise and insights to the forthcoming cohort of tech innovators. Harnil continues to champion growth, quality, and client satisfaction by fostering innovation and collaboration.
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