Testing mobile applications is different and more complex than testing traditional desktop and web applications. Mobile applications need to be tested on a variety of software platforms and versions, on diverse hardware and form factors, and under different network connectivity conditions. Moreover, the rapid pace of mobile OS updates, the frequent introduction of new devices and the customer expectation of quick upgrades require additional test cycles.

Read Also: Key Challenges for Mobile Application Testing

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Read Also: Key Challenges for Mobile Application Testing

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Read Also: Why is Usability Testing Important For Mobile And Web Applications?

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What is Usability testing?

Usability is a multi-dimension feature that deals with a user’s experience with apps and their feelings towards it. Interaction with an app makes the user go through various experiences and feelings. Usability testing is a well-structured assessment of this experience into a proper a validation process.

Some of the most fundamental points of usability testing are – Design layout, login details, reports and gauging the significance of business needs.

Who can perform usability testing?

A developmental setup comprising of developers, testers and designers works together in analyzing the system and bringing out results. These results are important in gauging design implementations and codes. Assessments lead to actions taken for modifications in code and design elements (as and when required). Agreements are reached by all parties to implement changes wherever they are required.

There are high-end usability testing efforts taken by some organizations that include hiring of real-time users who are asked to perform certain tasks. An appointed facilitator assesses these tasks and the results. The users are often asked to provide relevant information on areas like:

• Whether the task was successful or not
• How was the overall experience? Was it an interesting and engaging experience or a complete disappointment?
• What was their feeling towards the application/software?
• Whether the tasks given to them were performed easily or did they involve strife?

Why is Usability Testing carried out?

There are millions of mobile and web applications running in the market. With each passing day the numbers of apps are increasing enormously. Business world is taken over by the app storm. With more number of apps being launched the need for application testing increases considerably. It is important that web and mobile apps turn out to be as easy, appealing, effective, engaging, simple and efficient as they are desired to be. In order to ensure their high-end performance it is critical to perform usability testing. Engaging customers into this testing process is also very important. The main aim is to determine whether the user wants to come back to the website or continue using the app.

This process involves not just software systems and applications, but any interface and platform that involve human interaction. All machines, apps and system interfaces need to satisfy users. For example electronic voting machines that require only a click of a button. The machine should give out error-free output. One click determines a huge socio-political impact.

When does Usability Testing Need to be Incorporated?

Testers will vie for the fact that the sooner a malfunction is detected the better it is to fix it. Usability Testing is performed in the initial stages of development. The results produced by UT greatly impact a product’s design implementations. Design changes must be suitably carried out in the initial stages.

Coding and programming changes are also required based on usability results. It has been suggested by industry experts that usability testing should be carried out at regular intervals to attain maximum results.

Ways to Conduct Usability Testing

Usability testing is a form of testing the user’s mental map on his/her liking towards an application/website/machinery validation. It is more like a user experience tester. Here are some of the standard ways it is carried out:

Type 1

Before a design is all set to be made, drawing it out on a piece of paper and analyzing how good it is going to work is a way of UT in the design phase.

Type 2

Random tests can be included after during a website is being developed. This is an exploratory method where internal design/QA/development teams perform random tests that bring out results which are used to validate usability factors.

Type 3

Real-time users are hired to access and navigate the website before reporting results.

Type 4

Submitted designs and wireframes can be assessed with tools that provide statistics based on the inputs of the former.

Type 5

A third party UT team or an external evaluator can be hired to carry out the standard testing procedures and make way for internal improvements. Results based on design and wireframes can be submitted for future changes.

Read Also: Leading Mobile App Testing Tools

What are Methods of Usability Tests?

Identifying Problems

Discovering problems in usability tests is one of the most popular forms of usability studies. Main aim is to identify real problems and fix them. Participants carry out tasks that bring out common issues. UX or user experience is a wide field that involves in-depth research. Problem discovery studies help UX researchers to carry out effective product development.

There are moderated and un-moderated formative approaches involved in problem discoveries. Evaluations are used to make corrections in interfaces.

Benchmark Study

Finding problems and creating making changes in design does not solve the problem. The question remains as to the fact that whether the design changes make the interface easier to use or not. Benchmark studies are considered summative studies. Historical data is collected and assessed in order to gauge the impact of design changes. Standardized tests form an integral part of benchmark studies which is again a part of UX research.

Comparative Studies

Benchmark data provides a lot of information on tasks and experiences. However comparison of benchmarks leads to a deep understanding of success rates for various ranges of products. Same set of tasks carried out on different services and websites by different set of individuals provide a comparative study. Errors in task scenarios and testing metrics are common. Application testing finds it important to get over with these errors. Comparative study on previous designs makes way for contextual UT.

Differences in approach can be found with the help of large sized samples. Comparative studies of benchmarks often undergo longer time, more dedicated individuals and un-moderated remote approach.

Eye-tracking studies

It is important to asses and understands the way participants view the designs. Gaze paths must be studied well. Eye tracking is required. It has been often witnessed how a user’s look differs from his/her click. Eye-tracking is a time consuming procedure which can be conducted on multiple devices. Application testing done for desktops, Smartphone and tablets can benefit greatly from eye-tracking UT method.

Quantifying the Learning Process

Participants repeatedly taking part in tasks quantify the learning curve. Repeated tasks are beneficial as they are able to determine problems in UX and impressions. Participants encountering problems even after repeated performances receive substantial evidence for immediate changes and error fixes.

Usability Testing is a broad area of testing that requires in-depth understanding of the field and its expanse. UT being an open-end solution has space for creativity in suggestions, observations and skills.

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TestFlight

Initially this tool was available for testing Android and iOS apps. Being acquired by Apple TestFlight’s Android support was made unavailable. This tool is free for iOS 8 developers. You can gather easy feedback from real users. Test your apps on iPod, iPhone and iPad by using TestFlight. This tool offers you to send invites to 1000 testers and external users using their email ids. Testers receiving an invite (a link) can download the official app from the App Store. TestFlight Beta Testing will allow you to take note of this invite facility that urges external testers to test your app before release.

Ubertesters

This tool is broad in scope and reach. Numerous tools are offered here making bug reporting an easy affair. New builds can be formed and tested easily. Distribution of new builds is quite easy here. There are free and premium plans offered here. 100MB of storage along with 2 projects can be stored here under the free plan. Both Android and iOS apps are supported by this tool. Windows is slated for future support. Some of its standard features are:

1. Messaging
2. Bug report analysis and status via OS.
3. Well integrated external bug tracking systems.
4. Team Management.
5. Distribution of updates and beta versions.

Ubertester has a unique feature that will allow you to hire people to test your app and assist you in adding variety to real devices and real time conditions.

TestFairy

Mobile beta testing becomes easier and faster with TestFairy.  This tool is freely available offering some great features like screen shots and video recording. If you are carrying out a test you can get a video of the exact test carried out by you that would also include memory, CPU, Network monitoring, crash reports, GPS tests and logs. Android apps do not require integration of APIs or SDKs into your app builds. However iOS apps will require just a line of code in order to run this program. Testers can be invited via email or through a native or web based test app.

HockeyApp

According to some reports developers around the world are known to rely heavily on this app testing tool. HockeyApp distributes beta versions of apps across Mac, iOS, Windows and Android platforms. You can receive feedback from users, analyze test coverage, engage new testers and gather live crash reports.

HockeyApp is currently owned by Microsoft. There are no free plans offered but the tool is available for 1 month trial.  This tool is available for $10 per month allowing you to float 5 applications. It also offers unlimited storage. Some of its standard features are:

1. Easy feedback system
2. Distribution enabled for all platforms
3. Updates enabled
4. Team and user management
5. Integration of analysis and crash reports enabled with version control.
6. Hardware, OS and Users Analytics provided.

These are only a few developer tools that include access to external testers. There are several other open source mobile testing frameworks like Robotium, Appium, Calabash, selendroid, MoneyTalk and UiAutomator that provide extended help on mobile testing. Choose your mobile app testing tools wisely in order to perform advanced and scalable testing.

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Ensuring your consumers the best possible user experiences will require you to set good targets for your mobile applications. Testing mobile apps is a long drawn and rigorous process. A completely perfect looking app might troubleshoot from the most unexpected quarters. In order to excel in your testing efforts there are few techniques and strategies that you can combine to deliver better productivity. Smartphone Apps Development is becoming a tough job and right strategies will make you achieve greater feats.

Device Consideration and Selection

The most important concern for app development organizations are ways to test and app. With the growth and expansion of the mobile market there are testing methods that greatly depend on the reach and market viability of an application. Two significant choices are selecting the gadget model and other substantial devices for testing.

While selecting device models for app testing there are a few factors that need to be considered:

1. Screen Resolution – Users vary as do their usage devices. There are a wide range of tablets, phablets, ipads and Smartphone devices. Testing phases will have to include considering tests carried out across all existing screen sizes and resolutions. User operations can be gauged once different set of screen resolutions are tested.
2. Operating Systems – Apps must be tested across all standard and stable OS and their respective versions. This will restrict errors in the testing phases.
3. An app that has been created for all mobile devices must be tested across most devices. This is necessary because a supposedly compatible app (for all mobile devices and their compatible operating systems) can show traces of malfunctioning across smart phones and tablets. To curb this mishap, the app needs to be tested for all forms. This goes out for testing on Android as it comes with a lot of hassle. Android testing must be extensively carried out on maximum number of devices available in the market to avoid future errors. Hardware tools for most devices must be checked intensely to curb future errors.

Using Real Devices and Emulators

Testing can be done on emulators during the initial stages. Device emulators come real handy during rapid testing phases. In order to curb big budget mobile device emulators can be used to test basic application functionalities and features. They are regarded beneficial for easy testing of scripting languages as they provide a pseudo-live environment and network bypass which are great hassle-free options.

Physical devices must always be considered to gauge real life scenarios. Testing phases must include combination of using emulators and real devices as together they provide quick, worthy and effective results.

Real-time testing must be done with physical devices.  Beta testing greatly depends on testing across physical devices. With physical device testing you can perform an overall assessment of the mobile app working on real devices, real-world and actual networks.

Device emulators should not be used during beta testing as they fail testing standards when compared to physical devices. Beta testing will allow you to test your mobile app on areas such as:

1. Battery statuses on the devices.
2. Network densities.
3. Performance across various networks (Wi-Fi, 4G, 3G, etc).
4. Mapping real-world users interacting with your app.
5. Getting an overview as to how your app behaves on specific devices.

Automated and Manual Testing

Automation testing is the foundation of successful app development. Test automation must be performed:

1. In areas where an app is in its growing stages and shaping up.
2. Where development stages are long.
3. In places where functionality tests are taking place.
4. Wherever High frequency regression testing is in place.

Automation testing for a mobile app makes it easy for verifying the app’s compatibility modes with latest operating systems. Automation testing validates backward compatibility during application upgrades.

Manual testing is significant in all phases of testing. Human errors are not desired at any given stage. Thus manual testing must be done for SMS, email and roaming alerts, low battery and for incoming calls. With the growth and expansion of technologies manual testing has become more important as sophistication depends on accuracy. Advantages of location or voice based apps must be manually tested to gain maximum benefit.

Testing Mobile applications on Cloud

Cloud computing is growing by leaps and bounds which is making it more important to perform cloud-based testing in Smartphone apps development. Clouds provide testing environments to perform web-based deployment, testing and management of applications. With cloud based application testing huge costs are curbed increasing ROI for businesses. Here are a few benefits of cloud-based application testing:

1. Cloud based environments support complex applications. This solves problems of testing complex and dynamic applications.
2. Pre-configured and highly synchronized architectures within cloud environments pave the way for stabilized and minimum error in test configurations.
3. Results in real time are highly beneficial for testers who can analyze tests when they are running them.
4. Cloud testing provides scalability of an app that is used in determining its capacity.

Testing mobile apps across various networks

The nature and behavior of an app depends greatly on mobile networks. Testing apps in real network environments is good in receiving the real picture of an app’s behavior. Network simulation tools must be used in testing a mobile app to determine its connection drops, network speeds and bandwidth limitations. Value is added to testing activities by performing application testing on network connectivity.

We can never ignore the need and importance of mobile app testing whose success greatly depends on developer strategies, quality planning and strategies for target devices. In order to achieve successful release of an app, testing performance and quality assurance are the key yardsticks.

Right approach while considering customer expectations and tracing the business value of an app are the parameters that ensure general success for mobile app testing and success post deployment.

Read Also: Automated Testing Tools

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Best Android Testing Tools

Smartphone Apps Development has reached great success which has led to the rise in testing demands. We have stated a few latest tools for automated testing on Android which is considered as a very popular mobile operating system.

MonkeyRunner

This is a widely used Android testing tool for channelizing automated tests on Android software. Tests are written in Python. In order to automate tests it is not required to deal with source codes. There is an API that can be used to control a tablet, a Smartphone and an emulator remaining outside Android code.

UI Automator

This testing tool supports Android from version 4.1. It has been elaborated by Google. For earlier Android versions other testing tools must be taken into account. UI Automator effectively interacts with system applications and all types of software products. Scripts developed here can be executed across various Android platforms. Complex user actions can be reproduced. Testing frameworks like TestNG can work with UI automator effectively. Testing experts find comfort in bringing quality mobile application testing by using this tool. Since most mobile devices come installed with Android 4.1 UI Automator is regarded as a suitable test engineering solution by developers.

Robotium

It is a free Android UI testing tool that is frequently used for software support testing. Tests are written in Java.

Appium

This is a free framework to create automated tests for Android and iOS. Android versions from 2.3 and later support Appium. Several programming languages like Ruby, Java and C# is supported. Mobile websites can be tested as it can control Chrome and Safari browsers on mobile devices.

Ranorex

Testing can be carried out on devices having Android versions 2.2 and later. Ranorex provides detailed test reports and screenshots. It can be considered a very effective commercial mobile application tool. Testing engineers can perform bulk data-driven tests. Additional program modules and tests can be created with just the click of a mouse.

Automation Testing for GUI

Discussed here are a few GUI testing tools that allow building and execution of robust GUI tests across various operating systems and platforms.

Test Studio

Test Studio makes way for easy testing of a wide range of technology platforms. Applications can be tested on a wide variety of platforms using different tools and frameworks. Developers and QA can effortlessly collaborate and work with the help of well integrated source controls that can be checked into independently and at the same time without any technical problems. Numerous tests can be stored, referenced, used and shared with the help of Central Object repository via Elements Explorer.

Squish

Squish GUI tester keeps it error free and works on a complex cross-platform functionality. Popular for being a time-saver various industries around the globe use Squish for software releases. Quality enhancement of applications (native Windows and Mac apps) is ensured. Testers get to build automated tests on a varied set of languages that include Python, JavaScript, Ruby and Perl.

eggPlant

This is a perfect tool for professional software applications and enterprise solutions. Various applications such as Flash, Java and .NET can be automated with the help of eggplant.

TestComplete

This is an automation tool for Windows based applications. Applications built on C++, .NET or other platforms can be GUI tested. Test results can be recorded on TestComplete. Robust tests can be automated using a variety of scripting languages such as JScript, C#Script, Python, DelphiScript, VBScript and C++Script.

Automated Testing Tools for Web

Web based applications must at all levels be tested automatically in order to find possible bugs and regressions. Quick verification and changes are ensured. It is a difficult process to build automated tests. Here are a few good testing tools that make life easier for testers building and executing automated tests for web applications.

Windmill

Testers find this tool comfortable for debugging web applications. Tests can be run faster when written on Javascript. Ads can be blocked and variety of controls can be injected into web pages. A cross-browser test recorder is included in Windmill.

Selenium

This is a popular tool that allows testers to automate web browsers across different platforms. Numerous browser vendors have supported in making Selenium a native component of their browsers. Several frameworks, APIs and browser automation tools depend on Selenium’s high-end functions.

SoapUI

This testing tool functions across various platforms. SoapUI was developed to auto-test APIs like REST and SOAP interfaces in order to bring about functional ease in different applications.

Watir

Easy tests can be written and read on Watir. This is an automation tool running on a set of Ruby libraries. Watir is known to support Windows and Internet Explorer but its WebDriver supports Opera, Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox. Watir is widely used because there are no costs involved in using the tool. Best part about Watir is its lightweight and powerful functionality.

Tellurium

It boasts of a complete library of English commands. A simple log in enables a tester to start managing his/her tests and engaging in collaborative efforts with his/her team. People starting out on automated testing without prior knowledge of scripting languages can find Tellurium as the saving grace.

Sahi

Sahi is a fine web application testing tool that is available as a free open source edition and as a commercial Pro edition. It is browser independent and integrates fast development processes saving time and energy.

Benefits of Automated Testing

1. Covers a wide area of testing.

Scope and depths of testing fields are increased due to automated testing tools which in turn bring better improvement and success for software. An application’s data tables, internal program, memory contents and file contents are extensively examined. There are numerous complex scrutinizes carried out during every test which remains impossible with manually held tests.

2. Better accuracy is ensured.

With increased qualities in testing accuracy in features and functionality is achieved. Manual testing requires repeated efforts and mistakes remain common. Automated tests record minute details of every step taken during testing.

3. Saves time and money.

Attaining quality requires repeated testing. Development stages are completed by following stepwise testing cycles. Manual tests consume a lot of time and money. Automated tests can be run repeatedly wherever found necessary. Faster testing procedures save energies and costs thus bringing efficiency.

4. Developers welcome challenges.

With problems in development stages getting caught (automatic error notifications) by developers, confidence is pumped up. Developers can assess and track problems before sending to QA. This increases efficiency and saves time. Team efforts and morale are boosted as more time is spent on challenges and rewarding projects. With increased confidence levels improvement in skills sets and talent is introduced. Organizational development and success depends on improvement of teams and individuals.

Whether it is a big Software development firms or a mid-sized app development company (Smartphone App Development Services will be a top priority for mobile companies), automated testing tools will always be necessary in managing and reporting the success of applications and interfaces. Saving time, energy and money is ensured when one uses automated testing.

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