Mobile App Testing

Here’s a quick look at the soon-to-be-released Kyocera Echo, most known for its dual-screen display. Pretty cool.

For more, go to pcworld.com >>>

Juniper Networks has been a great source of material on the mobile app universe – for better or worse. Today, it’s worse…at least in terms of Android malware. Here’s a summary of their latest research report from TechCrunch Mobile:

One of the most unsettling findings of the study was the fact that the greatest distribution point for mobile malware is the application download. With the 400-percent increase of Android malware, now would be as good a time as any to choose an antivirus app. Still, the vast majority of mobile users neglect to employ any form of antivirus software on their mobile devices. And Android isn’t the only medium under attack, either. According to a different study from AVG Technologies, Facebook (along with Android) has seen a huge jump in malicious campaigns, specifically three times that of last year.

The study also revealed the risks of SMS, which is particularly upsetting, as it is the most used activity on a cell phone for about a million years running, and may just be the preferred form of communication in the next few years. To that end, it is certainly worth noting that 17 percent of all reported infections came from SMS trojans, which sent texts to premium rate numbers, incurring major charges to the victims. The study also mentioned that 20 percent of all teens admit to sending explicit or inappropriate material from a mobile device.

Read the entire article >>

We’ve spent the last year (253 posts for those keeping score) explaining to the world that mobile app testing is an entirely different animal than its web and desktop cousins. Whether the differences be in terms of OS, browser, screen size or GUI – you name it, we’ve covered it.

Yet this concept is….well, just a concept…until it’s experienced first-hand. Matt Heusser, one of the very best testing writers out there, recently wrote about his experience with mobile app testing for SearchSoftwareQuality, where he covers screen-size discrepancy, the device matrix, GUI and other areas we all know and love.

I was particularly drawn to the “ah-ha” moment in the second paragraph (emphasis added). Take a look:

So there I was, on my iPod Touch, trying to get to a list of users whose name started with the letter “I.” It worked great on the simulator with a mouse, but with the actual iPod, my finger was too fat to click the single line of pixels.

Suddenly it hit me: This is different. Sure, all of the old GUI rules apply, but suddenly we have a new set of ways the application can fail. This tip provides a quick set of guidelines to consider, primarily for Web-based mobile applications, but much of it applies to native applications as well.

Screen real estate

You might use a mobile device just like a regular 1024×768 pixel application, but your users probably won’t. Try to actually use the application on a number of devices — just use it. You’ll likely come away suggesting a mobile interface, perhaps an automatic re-direct on login when your application senses a mobile device. Even then, you’ll want to explore the application in a number of devices, looking for usability problems.

Read more…

Interesting beta test going on right now with Zipcar, who just came out with an IPO. We’ll follow the progress of this beta much like we did with the Starbucks app. Stay tuned. Full press release below:

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Zipcar, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZIP), the world’s leading car sharing network, today announced the launch of its highly anticipated Android™ mobile application as a public beta test. The app is available for download in beta format at www.zipcar.com/android and continues to expand Zipcar’s suite of mobile tools and services for its members.  The public beta launch enables thousands of members to test the new mobile app, and provide robust feedback directly to Zipcar to ensure the final product offers members a powerful, seamless mobile experience.

Zipcar’s new Android application allows members to search for and reserve Zipcars by time, location and vehicle type.  Members can use the application to view available Zipcars on a map, get directions to the vehicle location and extend or cancel a reservation.  The application can also be used to honk the horn to locate a Zipcar, as well as lock and unlock the vehicle after scanning the Zipcard into the reservation.  Non-members can download the app to search for vehicles and vehicle locations, learn more about Zipcar and initiate the membership application process.

“We offer car ownership, one hour at a time and we are dedicated to pushing easy-to-use, self-service innovations through the entire spectrum of our service.  The beta launch of our Android app, demonstrates our continued commitment to delivering the best member experience in the category,” said Zipcar Chairman and CEO Scott Griffith.  ”We conducted a member study in December 2010, and found that more than 90 percent of Zipsters use smartphones, with a large increase in the share of Android-powered devices compared to prior studies.  The launch of this public beta gives us the opportunity to learn from thousands of members using a wide variety of Android devices to gather feedback on their user experience. The creation of the new Android app is the latest step we’ve taken to ensure the Zipcar experience aligns with the communication tools and mobile lifestyle choices of our members.”

Read more…

There’s a lot of talk these days about HTML5, specifically in regards to the web and what it means for the future of video. Did you not get the memo?

“Dear Desloper (Designer+Developer) community, HTML5 has introduced a <video> tag and all you need to do is give the source of your file and it will play videos in all the browsers and devices of the universe.”

Can it really be that easy? Nope. As the saying goes, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” – and the same applies to embedding video in HTML5.

The popularity of HTML5 becomes more and more important with the way arch-rivals Adobe and Apple get along with each other. The miserable deslopers start looking for an alternative to Flash to play video on Apple devices. HTML5 – and its <video> tag – is therefore seen as somewhat of a savior. No Flash or Quicktime to play a video? Where do I sign up?

However, with different parties supporting different video standards, the desloper community needs to keep in mind that they need to encode video into different formats so that various browsers can understand their video format.

For converting the video to iPhone, Apple provides a tool named Quick Time Pro which you can buy (or let your generous boss pay for it) for conversion purposes. Quick Time Pro will make your life easy to convert your video (Quick time format) file into MP4 which you can play on iPhone for both web and desktop applications.

The fun starts when you have to play H.264 video format in Mozilla Firefox (my favorite browser and probably most developers’ favorite too).

Read more…

Fragmentation is a hot topic in the world of mobile applications – specifically, the Android app market, with its multiple OS versions and devices. Right now, the topic is discussed in the context of development (i.e. it’s hard to develop for so many operating systems). But soon – we don’t know when exactly – the discussion will shift towards how fragmentation affects mobile app testing. We’ll be here waiting.

In the meantime, the writers at PCworld are beginning to stumble across the problem. Here’s a brief excerpt from a recent article titled App Fragmentation Issue Is Bigger than Android:

There really isn’t a way to create a single app and have it work across all platforms. Developers are forced to develop multiple versions of the same app to work with the different mobile operating systems, and distribute those apps through separate app store distribution channels. And, even within a single mobile OS, developers must verify that the app works as intended across a diverse set of hardware options.

All of the additional effort required to develop and adequately test apps that meet the challenges posed by fragmentation cause development to take longer and cost more. I wouldn’t expect any mobile Utopia where apps are standardized in some way any time soon, so developers just need to factor the fragmentation into the development process and do what they can to develop most efficiently.

Almost there….

Funny video from uTest Express – a service that lets developers test any type of mobile app before launching.

Jakob Nielsen – who gives a great two-part interview on the uTest Blog – discusses some common problems with tablet applications. If you’re anyway involved with developing, testing or deploying a tablet app in the next few months, you would be wise to take his advice.

Nielsen writes:

The biggest problem in our recent tablet studies has been TMN: too much navigation. Also, too many inconsistently scrolling fields. Some tablet apps cram in so many weird features that users get overwhelmed and flail around without gaining mastery of the content.

I think that most designers of phone-based apps have recognized the need to limit the number of features and the number of wildly scrolling areas. The small screen imposes useful discipline that keeps out the worst excesses that still dilute usability on larger tablets.

While tablet UIs need to quiet down and become more consistent, that doesn’t mean that they should be phone designs with prettier graphics. The bigger screen allows for more features, and more focus on immersive use over longer periods of time than the quick hits that are most useful on phone-sized devices.

Read the interview from the beginning >>>

I just posted a Testing the Limits interview with Jakob Nielsen – aka the King of Usability – over on the uTest Blog. The subject matter will of great interest to readers of this blog, as we had an in-depth discussion on the past, present and future of mobile applications. Here are a few clips where he discusses native apps vs. the mobile web, tablet usability issues and his take on the iPhone vs. Android situation.

On native apps vs. the mobile web:

JN: Apps are superior for 3 reasons:

• Empirically, users perform better with apps than with mobile sites in user testing.
• Apps are much better at supporting disconnected use and poor connectivity, both of which will continue to be important use cases for years to come. When I’m in London and don’t feel like being robbed by “roaming” fees, any native mapping app will beat Google Maps at getting me to the British Museum.
• Apps can be optimized for the specific hardware on each device. This will become more important in the future, as we get a broader range of devices.

Apps have the obvious downside of requiring more development resources, especially to be truly optimized for each device. If a company doesn’t have enough resources to do this right, it’s better to have a nice mobile site than a lame app.

A second downside of apps is that users have to install them. Our testing shows poor findability and usability in Apple’s Application Store, and many users won’t even bother downloading something at all for intermittent use. So ask yourself whether you’re really offering something within the hardcore mobile center of need: time-sensitive and/or location dependent, and whether your offer is truly compelling in this crowded space. Most companies are never going to make it big in mobile. In some cases all they need is to make their main website somewhat mobile-friendly. Many others should deliver a dedicated mobile site but not bother with apps.

On usability problems with tablets:

Read more…