8 Blind Spots Often Overlooked When Testing on Mobile

Blind Spots 8

Often Overlooked When

Testing On Mobile

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We all miss

a thing or

two from

time to time

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It’s only human

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We’re so busy every day… it can

be easy to overlook things

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forgetfulness can

have consequences

But when it comes

to your app!

@neotys

This is especially true with testing performance of mobile apps

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Mobile devicesare no longer considered a

secondary means of accessing the Internet

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Mobile searches are projected to exceed desktop searches in 2015

eMarketer

84 billion 86 billion

< @neotys

Millennials on mobile

50% 41% research!!products!

make!!purchases!

Leaderwest Digital@neotys

Mobile metrics on e-commerce sites (Q3 2014)

62% 141%

traffic! revenue!MarketLive

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the knowledge of how to test and monitor

But in many organizations

MOBILE APPLICATIONS

is lagging behind actual usage

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THAT’S NOT

RIGHT @neotys

You don’t want to overlook anything

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@neotys

Mobile Network Latency and Packet Loss

Mobile networks don’t carry information as reliably as standard wired or Wi-Fi networks do.

That means your mobile app won’t always get the data it needs, when it’s expected.

1

https://flic.kr/p/kzLw9n @neotys

Mobile Network Latency and Packet Loss 1 Be sure your test systems simulate the same kinds of network bumps that real devices experience.

https://flic.kr/p/kzLw9n @neotys

Parallel Connections 2 Mobile networks, devices and applications all enforce varying policies with respect to how many parallel connections are allowed from the app to the server at a given time.

https://flic.kr/p/jcbh98 @neotys

Parallel Connections 2 Failing to account for this could have a big impact on test results.

https://flic.kr/p/jcbh98 @neotys

Testing In Real Environments 3 Sometimes bugs only reveal themselves in the real world, under actual operation.

https://flic.kr/p/8ZcUsb @neotys

Testing In Real Environments 3 Don’t just test your mobile experience through mobile emulators in staged environments. You need to test mobile apps in real-world production environments too.

https://flic.kr/p/8ZcUsb @neotys

Automation for Load Testing 4 Many people start their mobile QA efforts by testing manually on a handful of devices.

They don’t rely on automation in the mobile world the way they do in the desktop world, because it’s a little more complicated and elaborate.

https://flic.kr/p/7yahjU @neotys

Automation for Load Testing 4 But manual testing is simply not scalable in mobile.

Work performance testing into your functional test automation early, so you can deploy those tests across the many OS combinations you need to address.

https://flic.kr/p/7yahjU @neotys

User Pathways and Real-Time Behavior 5 KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are a critical part of operating a real-world web applications.

But don’t be so glued to these metrics you forget actual user behavior.

https://flic.kr/p/xjsxm @neotys

User Pathways and Real-Time Behavior 5 How users flow through the app will give you tremendous insight into where problems may arise.

Send synthetic users along the same paths your real visitors follow, so you can identify poor experiences before your users do.

https://flic.kr/p/xjsxm @neotys

Background Activity 6 A poor-performing app that drains a user’s battery will quickly find itself removed.

Find ways to reduce background activity, especially for apps that spend a lot of energy fetching notifications and downloading data.

https://flic.kr/p/hNcMN @neotys

Background Activity 6 Don’t try to engage the user frequently if they aren’t using the app frequently. Check for notifications on a daily basis instead of a real-time basis, and consider turning off data refreshes until the user opens the app again.

https://flic.kr/p/hNcMN @neotys

Updates

7 Web apps can be updated immediately on a server if there is an issue, but for mobile apps the user often needs to perform the update themselves.

https://flic.kr/p/93qbEg @neotys

Updates

7 That means you have to uphold a particular standard of quality when deploying a mobile update. Otherwise your users may be stuck without a working app until the next refresh cycle.

https://flic.kr/p/93qbEg @neotys

Continuous Learning 8 As performance testing becomes more important, you’ll be constantly discovering new things and fixing new problems.

You’ll also make some mistakes – a normal and healthy part of the testing process.

https://flic.kr/p/CXhsW @neotys

Continuous Learning 8 When you find a problem, don’t just fix the symptom and move on.

You’ve got a prime opportunity to learn from your errors and improve your process. Be in learning mode, all the time.

https://flic.kr/p/CXhsW @neotys

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1 Mobile Network Latency & Packet Loss

Continuous Learning

Updates

Background Activity

User Pathways and Real-Time Behavior

Parallel Connections

Automation for Load Testing

Testing In Real Environments

8 blind spots when testing mobile

@neotys

get rid of your blind spots.

When it comes to mobile performance testing,!

@neotys

Want to know more about mobile performance testing? Watch this webcast:

http://www.neotys.com/webcast/Are-Mobile-Users-Slowing-Down-Your-Web-Apps.html

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Are Mobile Users Slowing Down Your Web Apps?