Is your mobile app performing poorly? Here’s why…
Posted on November 8, 2022
When you plan on investing in the mobile app development business, failure is the first thing you need to watch out for. You and your business want your app to be successful, accepted, and lucrative. Naturally, you end up reading articles entitled, “Why mobile apps fail?” or “The challenges faced during the mobile application development journey.” That perfectly makes sense but the key here is not to fall victim to the “positive thinking trap.”
We must answer some questions that might pop up in our head if we are planning to invest in the mobile app development industry since based on Statista, more than 25% of the applications downloaded using any distribution services were only accessed once after download and more than half of them get few or no downloads on Google Play Store.
In this article, we will encounter questions like why you need mobile app performance testing? The accepted mobile app testing strategies, and the challenges these companies face while implementing mobile app performance testing tactics.
Why do you need mobile app performance testing?
When mobile app developers face problems like time constraints, they are tempted to skip the mobile application testing phase. Doing this is highly unfavorable since the tester would not be able to point out the bugs and the app will not be supported by distribution services like Apple Store and Google Play Store.
Below are some of the objectives that the testers achieve with efficient performance testing:
Quality Assurance
As soon as you have a fully developed mobile app, it’s likely that the company now intends to launch its product but, before getting into that, it’s advised that the developers check whether the app shows good performance. You need to verify the compatibility of your app with the existing infrastructure. This phase involves two domains:
- Manual Testing
This step involves manually going through the written documentation to check whether the requirements set forth are being met or not. This is critical because if any feature is missing it is duly incorporated into the code.
- Scripted Testing
Once the manual testing phase is over, the QA team runs the script to check the code functionality. If there is a bug in the implemented logic, countermeasures should be taken to correct those flaws.
Take Advantage of Revenue Generation
Through performance testing, the company can determine whether the app has a competitive edge over others in the mobile commerce market. Moreover, they can allocate resources for operations like development, marketing, branding, and the launch of the app to avoid financial losses that might occur along the way.
Enhanced Application User Interface
To win the satisfaction levels of your target audience app developers should interrogate questions like:
Is the mobile app user interface amicable? Is the app easy to operate? Is the app load time and speed less time-consuming?
To cater to these questions one must take up simplistic designs for application user interface including basic features like:
- Easy navigation and use
- User feedback functionality
- A search bar
- Shareability
- Swift page load time
Guidance Related to Updates
Developers should be thorough in deciding on when and where to update their application. If, for instance, a bug is detected after the user downloads the app, an update option should automatically be available for the user to fix that bug.
Along with that, your app may face compatibility issues with newer versions of the software. You might need to go the extra mile here to promptly detect the errors by trying out different versions of your application. This will provide you with ample time to plan and optimize your profits.
Reduces Risks
App testing helps in reducing risks by forecasting challenges and meeting the requirements of your target end-user within the available time-frame.
Optimized SEO
While working effortlessly to build a robust mobile application you must also pay close attention to search engine optimization as it will be highly unfortunate if your app has a poor ranking on search engines.
Constructs your brand
App developers should focus on creating an impressive brand for their product as users often distance themselves from sloppy and inefficient apps. Consequently, app testing recommendations should primarily be implemented as this will help in building your brand when one app user will spread the word to another user on how efficient the app performance and overall experience was.
Draws Potential Loyal Customers
If your app has a strong user base, it will get more recommendations and as a result, will help draw in more loyal customers to try out your app. This will come in handy in marketing your app.
Strategies for mobile app testing
To help attract your user the app must give an innovative feel. It is hence imperative that you resolve any requirement contradictions before the final touches which may include steps like:
Cross-platform testing
Extra fixes are essential if your application is going to interact with other platforms. Developing insights about project requirements, objectives, different language platforms, and the end-user needs are crucial for an efficient cross-platform app testing strategy.
Attribute functionality
The mobile app features are built into devices and then built into the app. They interact with multiple features and hence should be thoroughly tested. It is, however, advisable not to run functional testing across a plethora of mobile devices. The test should be performed on a single device first and then on various devices during compatibility testing.
Type of application
Mobile applications consist of three main types:
- Mobile-web apps
- Native mobile apps
- Hybrid mobile apps
Before getting into mobile app development, you must understand the pros and cons of using each of these to build your application for an effective mobile app testing approach.
Front-end testing
This is the client-side also called the Graphical User Interface. Front-end testing includes the following:
- Regression tests
- Performance inspection
- Updates in the app files that might disrupt the front-end functionality
Back-end testing
The server-side of your mobile application is where back-end testing is performed. Any data that is entered at the front-end is tested at the back-end along with app security and performance.
Multiple network compatibility
Mobile compatibility testing is indispensable now due to the ever-growing technology in IoT and mobile phones. This process should include:
- Installing and uninstalling
- Functionality
- Transversal
- Data exchange
- User Interface
The tests should be performed on both the iOS and Android platforms.
Storage
You must keep the mobile storage limitations in mind during the designing phase. Most mobile applications like music streaming, games, hi-res photos, etc are competing for mobile storage space these days due to the limitations set forth during app design.
Less load time
It has been discovered through stats that because of low app speed, 48% of the users stop using the app. Hence, less load time is significant for users who don’t wish to spend minutes staring at the spinner going around in circles.
App design
The visual flow of your mobile application should be pleasing especially for first-time users, so the design phase must primarily focus on swiftly bringing together the elements, contents, features, and functionality of your app. It is critical that the flow of your architecture is tested to find the elements that might halt the user from using your app.
Challenges
Companies need to realize how important mobile testing is and during this phase, they are often faced with challenges like:
Fragmentation of the device, platform, and the operating system
With more than 4000 Android users and iOS with its alarming numbers, device fragmentation is more of an issue for the Android operating system. This problem will, however, only grow as more devices and platforms enter this competitive market. This diversity makes it challenging for developers to foresee if the tested application will work the same on all devices or not.
Varying mobile application types
The implementation for native, web-based, and hybrid apps is different from one another. Native apps have less scope for testing in comparison to hybrid and web-apps that require on and off-platform testing.
Mobile network
The app execution may differ depending on the network of the user. Therefore, the tester must perform app testing using different networks to find any loopholes in the way it functions amid varying mobile networks.
Security
Testing your app inside both a secure and an insecure network for probable network breaches is necessary as the user stores their data on your application and therefore, you must take rigorous measures to ensure data privacy.
The intimidating number of available testing tools
Can one testing tool satisfy all your mobile test automation needs? No, but due to the availability of so many tools it can be pretty challenging to find the ones that fulfill your requirements.
Conclusion
The performance of your app depends on a large number of factors that range from market competitors, the company budget to sheer luck. Apart from these factors, poor research and inadequate process execution are some of the most common reasons behind app failure. Properly conducted market research and mobile app performance testing can be the difference between failure and success.
If you want your next app to be successful then, contact us, and our team will get back to you.
