Mobile Usability Testing | What it is and How to Perform?

It is a fact that we all use smartphones and mobile apps on a day-to-day basis. Whether at a cafe, commuting on a train, or sitting on the beach staring at the waves while surfing the Internet, we are all connected no matter where we are. And with technological advances, everything has become more straightforward and accessible. But let’s face reality: not everything can be improved with just an engineering tweak here or there; the user experience is essential for successful applications across all platforms. For that, we need “mobile usability testing.”

The pitfall lies between a poorly designed application and the diverse usability levels that most users disagree with. Hence, developers must create a sleek design with a seamless user interface. This creates a need to test mobile applications and their usability thoroughly. You can know here how user-friendly your app is on mobile by doing a mobile-friendly test for your app.

In this article, we will discuss how we can perform mobile usability testing that would enable us to create applications that live up to the user’s standards.

What is Mobile Usability Testing?

In broad terms, mobile usability testing helps us ensure that our users can easily meet their goals with our applications. It involves inviting test participants representing future users to perform tasks on our prototype application in a controlled and monitored environment. Similar to all other aspects of UI/UX designs, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach you can adopt to perform mobile usability testing. Your idea to test mobile usability should depend mainly on the products and resources that you have. However, it should always revolve around reaching the user’s standards, proving true for any product.

Let’s suppose we have an application for a ticket reservation system. Every second is critical when we try to book tickets using such an application. This means that a bug related to user experience or a complex feature that goes beyond user standards can be quite frustrating for users.

Hence, the application must go through comprehensive usability testing before its launch. The best way to ensure that it caters to user’s requirements is to let the users perform the testing. This is precisely what we do in mobile usability testing.

While it’s true that mobile and web usability testing follows the same lines for most of the part, the main difference between them is the actual implementation of the tasks and testing plans. Apart from planning, the reporting and the test works remain the same.

How to Prepare for Mobile Usability Testing | Factors Involved

A successful usability testing on mobile devices depends on various factors, including the choice of testing method and the usability testing tool. A look at these factors will aid you in putting together a working model of mobile usability testing.

• Define Clear Objectives: Start by explicitly defining the objectives of why you want to perform mobile usability testing and what results you expect from this process.
• Prepare a Detailed Test Document: Based on the defined purpose, document the testing process, including the test plan, automation tools, testing technique/methodology, test scope and environment, test cases, and test data management.
• Choose the Right Candidates and Tools: Before creating and executing the test cases, select the appropriately experienced set of QAs and test automation tools to aid the testing lifecycle.
• Select a Testing Approach: As per your project and application under testing, determine the approach that will provide the best results in your budget and timeline.
• Perform the Tests: Begin testing the mobile application after putting all the above points in place.
• Analyze the Results: Carefully document the test results, analyze them, and share them with the right individuals, including the stakeholders and project managers.

Aspects to Assess via Mobile Usability Testing

The absolute proper way of ensuring that your mobile usability test is working as per expectations is by assessing certain parameters. Here’s a list:

• UI Design: Assess the visual layout of the application, which includes checking the intuitiveness, page consistency, and visual appeal.
• Navigation and Flow: Test the navigation and flow by moving between screens and pages within the application.
• Accessibility: The software must be accessible to differently-abled people.
• Performance and Responsiveness: Assess the application’s loading speed, performance, and responsiveness under different network conditions and device sizes.
• Error Handling and Feedback: Assess how the app handles errors and provides feedback to users through helpful messages and notifications.
• Compatibility: Verify that the app functions correctly across various devices, operating systems, and screen sizes.
• Security and Privacy: Ensure the app handles user data securely and respects privacy, including testing authentication processes, data encryption, and compliance with privacy regulations.

Why is Mobile Usability Testing Necessary for Building Mobile Experiences?

The most recent figures on smartphone usage highlight that nearly 5 billion people own and use smartphones. Other statistics show that an average person spends 4.37 hours daily using mobile apps. All these numbers (which are constantly growing by the day) indicate how important usability testing for mobile applications is.

Moreover, users are browsing web apps on mobile phones, again adding to the importance of building better mobile experiences.

Performing usability testing of mobile apps helps companies to:

• Provide users with a top-notch, error-free product that has the potential to scale with time.
• Identify errors and bugs that would otherwise obstruct customer satisfaction.
• Opt for better and improved ways to build and test mobile apps.
• Easily simulate real-world interactions and focus on the necessary features for developing a mobile app.
• Simplify the entire mobile app development and testing process by focusing on what’s important for users.
• Stay aligned with market trends when creating and delivering an app for customers.

Types of Mobile Usability Testing

Mobile usability tests are of multiple types. Let’s have a look at those categories:

Moderated and Unmoderated Testing

Moderated usability testing involves an expert moderator who supervises and guides the testing process. The moderator interacts with the test participants to answer their queries in real-time. For example, a facilitator could guide users through the app’s features while observing their interactions and asking questions in real-time.

Unmoderated testing, on the other hand, is the opposite of the moderated approach, which does not involve an intermediator. It only consists of the contributors/test participants working through the application.

Remote or In-person Testing

Similar to how it sounds, remote usability testing refers to performing the testing process online or on mobile phones without anyone guiding the contributor. In-person testing involves a supervisor who advises the participants.

It is similar to moderated and unmoderated testing, with the only difference being the location and time of the testing.

Task-Based Testing

This process focuses on performing a particular task within the mobile application. Its purpose is to highlight the issues users might face while working through that one task.

An example of task-based mobile app usability testing would be users particularly checking the ‘purchase’ functionality or the ‘download’ feature of an app.

A/B Usability Testing

A/B testing compares two or more versions of the app to determine which one provides a better user experience. The approach involves testing different UI elements or workflows to see which version users prefer. It could include users split into two groups, with each group using a different version of the app to determine which version provides a better user experience.

Contextual Inquiry

It observes users in their natural environment while they use the app to provide insights into how the app fits into users’ daily routines to uncover contextual factors affecting usability.

When Should Organizations Conduct Mobile Usability Testing?

The ideal stage to conduct usability testing of mobile applications is soon after you have a feature, an upgrade, or any application flow ready to show users.

As a best practice, start the testing as soon as something is available for you to give to users. Additionally, make sure to conduct frequent tests to identify issues at the earliest stage of SDLC.

How Frequently Should You Perform Mobile Usability Testing?

The answer is consistency and small chunks of tests.

When it comes to mobile testing, the landscape evolves rapidly and rightfully requires regular verification of the application. Focus on staying aligned with the user expectations, the testing objective, the test plan, and the results you seek.

How is Usability Testing Useful for Mobile Apps?

Usability testing is really important for the creation of mobile apps. It helps developers determine how easy it is to use and if people have a good experience with it. Doing usability testing can help developers find and fix problems that might make it hard to use or navigate the app.

Here are some reasons why app usability testing is useful for mobile apps:

1. Usability testing helps make sure your app is easy to use and navigate, which can lead to more people using it, sticking with it, and giving good reviews. According to Unwind Media  “Usability testing was key to making our spider solitaire game successful
2. It can also help you determine if issues could confuse or annoy users before the app launches.
3. Doing this early on can save time and money, plus prevent bad reviews that could hurt the app’s success.

In summary, app usability testing is essential for mobile app development as it helps improve the user experience, identifies usability issues, and saves time and money in the long run.

How to do Effective Usability Testing for Mobile Applications

Steps to create a perfect mobile usability testing plan for your prototype:

1. Objectives of the usability test.
2. Setting up the tasks.
3. Creating the test documentation.
4. Finding the right test participants.
5. Conducting the test.
6. Reporting the results.

Let’s have a look at each of these, step-by-step.

1. Objectives of the usability test.

The first step of your mobile usability testing should be to set your goals straight. The question arises, how you can set your goals?

You can start by preparing and asking several questions to your stakeholders. This also includes the developers which would help you to explore some important areas.

• The roadmap of your application.
• Targeted audience.
• Competitors of your product.
• Research to be performed, features that need to be tested, and its potential impact.
• Scope of the product.

By asking these questions, to your stakeholder, you will get a clear view of what they know and what they want. You can now start working on identifying your goals and metrics to achieve them. 

2. Setting up the tasks.

Once you know what features to be tested, the next step is to start assigning the tasks to your test participants. Tasks are basically, the interactions that are to be performed by the test participants. It includes setting up test scenarios and organizing the sequence in which the test steps need to be executed. Each test scenario should be well-crafted and should reflect all the set of actions that a user will tend to perform. 

Some examples of such tasks include registering and logging into an account, uploading or downloading media files, browsing through a page, etc. and they are mostly specific to the type of application.

It also involves deciding the set of tools to be adopted which can easily highlight the issues. The type of tool which you need to adopt depends largely on the following factors.

• Creating recorded sessions of the tests along with screenshots of the bugs.
• Tools that can support multiple OS-device combinations with multiple screen resolutions.
• Integration with other CI/CD tools.
• Generation of comprehensive test reports.
• Full-page screenshot and availability of touch scrolling. 

Depending upon such factors, you need to decide what features you want to have in your testing tools. Only then, you can decide how to integrate them with your test participants’ devices to get real-time feedback. It’s always preferable for participants to allow them to perform testing on their own devices. 

3. Creating the test documentation.

It’s very important to maintain a piece of detailed information on each test that is conducted. This makes it easier to identify the issues in case a bug pops up. Depending on the methodology you adopt, there are a number of documents that you need to maintain. Typically, the following must be an integral part.

• A Consent form – stating whether the test participants have their full consent and that they are willing to provide full support to get accurate results.
• A Post-test questionnaire – which should include questions that help the teams to understand the intuitiveness of the app and find out whether the app offers everything that they claim to.

Let’s suppose, you have a questionnaire where you have answers to some important questions answered by your participants. These questions might include how intuitive your application is, ease of access to features, level of satisfaction, etc. You can use these to enhance the performance or the usability of your applications. 

Such detailed documentation will provide a wealth of information post successful testing which will help you to improve your prototype application.

4. Finding the right test participants.

After strategizing on all the above points, the question arises, who will participate in the test? It will be easier to find the right participants once you have a clear understanding of the type of test you want to perform. It’s key to draw participants based on both behavioural traits and demography. To add value to the product, you must select participants that could represent your target audience.

For on-site tests, development teams can turn to their marketing partners to find the right list of participants.  They can use the social media platform to hire freelancers and It’s also very key to get the stakeholder involved in the whole process. They can provide valuable insights from unexplored areas and it’s always beneficial to gain their trust and commitment.

Some considerations to be taken when selecting the participants are –

• They should represent the intended target audience.
• They should own devices that have an OS on which your app is intended to run.
• Be available at the time of need and frequently when you need to conduct your tests.
• Be ready to sign the consent form and agree to the compensation terms.
• Be available at all stages of the application development cycle and maintain confidentiality and have the required expertise with mobile applications.

5. Conducting the test.

There are two widely-adopted methods to conduct mobile usability testing. These are:

• Laboratory-based testing.
• Remote testing.

Laboratory-based testing involves real users with real devices. The evaluator has full control to set the tasks. These, however, require a proper setup by the evaluator’s end. Some components include fixed-position and cradle-based cameras, recording software, test facilitators, a perfectly lit venue, etc. While both the methods are effective, however, in-house based testing is always better because it allows the evaluators to capture the tester’s behaviour, reactions, and expressions while using the application. 

6. Reporting the results.

After completing all the test sessions, it’s essential that you go through all the information-packed data, analyze it to get actionable insights from it. It’s always better that you split the data into two parts – 

• Quantitative data can be used to compute metrics such as success rates, completion rates, error rates, etc.
• Qualitative data can provide insights such as problems experienced, the path taken by the participants, and analyze the answers that were provided in the questionnaire and debriefing sessions.

Following is the structure that has been proved to be effective for reporting.

1. Providing a Background Summary containing answers to the whats, whens, and hows.
2. The testing methodology containing information such as the task scenarios, metrics used to identify the success ratios, information about the participants, etc.
3. The test results include both quantitative and qualitative data.
4. Providing a set of recommendations and findings based on the observations from test results.

How can Testsigma Help You in Mobile Usability Testing?

1. Below is the test case creation page where the user can select the uploaded APK file for execution

2. Continue to record steps by selecting any machine from the shown dropdown integrated with different labs

3. Create a test case and record the steps manually or by using test sigma recorder.

In the below image, the test steps for testing mobile usability for android is been showed

4. Once done with creating steps, click on run to run your testcase

5. Once the Testcase execution is done, you will end up on the result  page

6. Reaching the test case executed page. You will find displayed error message for failed element.

7. On the right side, you will find videos and logs can be found here for the executed testcase.

8. Go to test suite creation and click on > Add test cases to a suite

9. Add the test suite and your preffered machine you want to run your testplan on

10. On successfully creating the Testplan, you will end up on the screen given below.

11. In Testplan execution page user’s can see multiple test cases execution put in different suites in a testplan

12. To upload an apk file> go to uploads

Mobile usability testing requires designing test scenarios and constant monitoring of all the sets of actions taken by the test participants.

Once you’ve taken care of mobile usability testing and finalized the designs, automating the test cases for mobile app testing that you might need to do multiple times or on different devices is a good idea. To make this easier, use a test automation tool that lets you easily run tests on your mobile devices without extra effort from you or your team. Testsigma is an automated mobile app testing tool that makes it easy to create complex test steps with simple natural language. It also helps you set up tasks and monitor the testing environment quickly and effectively.

Check out: Approach for Mobile Website Testing

Some features of Testsigma tool that will make your mobile application testing easier are:

• It lets you build automated and stable test environments for mobile applications by allowing you to run test scenarios remotely on 2000+ iOS and Android devices.

• These devices are available on-demand as they are hosted on the cloud. It allows you to perform parallel automated testing for quick results.
• You can create comprehensive test cases for UI/UX testing by specifying all the UI identifiers that you want to test to ensure the seamless usability of the application.
• Features such as the generation of drill-down test reports with video recordings and screenshots, bug sharing, integration with CI/CD tools, etc. can make reporting results easier.

These features can surely help you build a robust application, that is immune to any bugs related to the usability of the application in the future.

Mobile Usability Testing Best Practices

Here are some of the best practices to follow while conducting usability testing for mobile applications:

• Familiarity with the device: The participants should understand the device they would use for testing applications. A minimum of 3 months of usage should be recorded by them.
• Run a review: Before sending out the mobile application for validation, run it through someone (a colleague) who wasn’t involved in the development and testing process to get fresh eyes on deck.
• Perform thorough testing: Without a doubt, execute complete testing of the mobile application.
• Use a variety of devices: Make use of different devices of varying sizes and specifications.
• Simulate real-world conditions: Test under various network conditions, including low bandwidth, offline scenarios, and environmental factors like different lighting conditions and physical contexts, to understand how these variables impact usability.
• Report clearly and visually: Place high emphasis on clearly jotting down the test findings and presenting them visually so that they are easy to understand.
• Analyze and prioritize findings: Review recordings and notes to identify usability issues and categorize them based on severity and frequency.

How to Interpret and Leverage Mobile Usability Test Results?

You have the test results data after following the best practices. What now?!

The next step is to understand and use that information to reduce the instances of issues and provide the users with the highest-quality product.

Identify Patterns

Analyze the data to identify common patterns and trends in user behavior. Look for recurring issues or feedback from multiple participants. For example, if a number of app users mention a problem in the UI, pay attention to those comments.

As a best practice, look at both qualitative data (user comments, observed behaviors) and quantitative data (task completion times, error rates).

Organize Data Appropriately

You will have data in different formats, including text, audio, video, user feedback, and recordings. Systematically organize all this data according to their test tasks, user actions, and identified issues. Also, segment them based on their nature, such as navigational, UI, security, performance, and more.

Prioritize the Issues

After the classification, prioritize them based on severity and impact on user experience. High-priority issues should be given extra attention and immediate resolution as they significantly hinder usability or prevent users from completing key tasks.

Create a Usability Report

Compile a detailed report with an overview of the testing process, key findings, and identified usability issues. Use screenshots, video clips, and charts to show key points and make the report more engaging and understandable. Moreover, you can provide recommendations for addressing each issue.

Stir up the Conversation

Get people involved, even stakeholders, developers, designers, product managers, and executives, to ensure the usability report for mobile testing goes through multiple stages and becomes a refined version by the end.

Iterate and Validate

Implement the recommended changes and conduct follow-up usability tests to validate that the issues have been resolved. Use the results from these follow-up tests to improve the app further.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you test the usability of a mobile application?

• Define the user scenarios: Think about what the app is used for and what tasks people might want to do on it.
• Recruit participants: Find people similar to those who would use the app in real life.
• Create test cases: Make a list of things that people should try out on the app.
• Conduct the tests: Watch users as they go through each task and look for any problems or difficulties they have.
• Analyze the results: Look at what you noticed while testing and determine how to improve the app.

What type of testing is done on mobile?

• Functional testing: This type of testing checks to ensure the app does what it should.
• Compatibility testing: This testing ensures the app works on different phones, operating systems, and screen sizes.
• Performance testing: This type of testing looks at how fast the app is, how quickly it responds, and if it runs smoothly.
• Security testing: This testing looks at the app’s security features to ensure your data is safe.
• Usability testing: This type of testing checks how easy it is to use the app, how you move around inside it, and if you have a good experience with it.

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Remote Usability Testing | What it is & How to Conduct it?