In:Mobile Apps

How Should We Effectively Test Application Designs For Mobile Responsiveness?

Chetan Patel July 9, 2019 0

Leading businesses all across the globe are beginning to understand the significance of responsive web applications.

Hence, you see enterprises, as part of their strategy to make it easier to streamline cross-platform app development, are heavily pursuing web-responsive apps.

They know how this will help them attract more and more new users.

There’s a need for enterprise architects to understand that there exists a continuum of applications that ranges from basic web pages to custom-made native applications for various smart devices – and responsive apps are a part of that continuum.

To test these apps, one requires a comprehensive strategy that explores both the physical characteristics of different devices, as well as the various kinds of users.

Anything that is going to be directly used by your customer has to have a responsive design.

This is the primary thought process a business needs to have, to successfully strategize a better customer experience and onboarding.

What deems an application design as mobile responsive?

Spanning right from simple websites to more complex native applications, having a responsive mobile app design forms a part of the larger continuum of app experiences.

One of the major inclusions to this is the ease of access to traditional websites, but with a more customized, a better user experience that is delivered on native devices.

With traditional websites, we know how they do not scale well.

They can easily make the user experience a clumsy one, especially if opened on older devices.

With responsive design, the expectation is to have navigation features and content dynamically adjusted, never mind the different types of devices it will be used on.

We know that one of the primary expectations from mobile responsive design is the scaling of content. This further leads to a more consistent user experience.

But, even then, app performance can get impacted when features, such as larger image sizes and icons come into the equation.

There’s a need to retrieve these over slower networks and then scaled them to fit a screen.

Many organizations, therefore, make use of adaptive design which further uses server-side logic in order to adjust the content for different devices.

After all, responsive is about taking stuff, only to reformat it to the size of a given screen.

Building blocks as a way to accelerate responsive development

Enterprises need to develop a strategy in order to rapidly iterate responsive apps to address any usability flaws, improve the user experience, and finally to better align the app with the long-term business goals.

For this, companies have beta testers, in-house testing, and ways to mine data from end users. But, going for manual coding could easily slow down this process.

That’s where the concept of building blocks comes into the picture. They help deliver incremental releases much more rapidly.

They let people build basic mobile and desktop apps without the pressure of becoming an expert in designing and coding. The development cycle is shortened, as a result.

The prototype can be made life this way, with more and more companies opting to release every single app feature almost immediately, and revising it really quickly based on the user (early adopter) feedback.

Integrate UI functionality into app development

Companies can try to fasten the process of iteration by testing an application much earlier in its development lifecycle.

Such a strategy and proper tools could minimize the overhead as well as the potential errors which human involvement could introduce.

As far as strategies go, the best way to start is with testing on real devices, as much as you can; it is always a great idea.

These tests should always be conducted, keeping the perspective of the end user in mind. You can only test a workflow properly if you treat it as it would be experienced by the end user.

As you’re checking the size of the resolution, always look for ‘fit’. This is to be sure that a user workflow is supported across a variety of devices.

Do not forget to calculate the frustration factor.

That means a mobile app design & development company responsible for creating responsive mobile apps have to calculate the impact of their design and code-related choices on user experience.

Usually, people get quite frustrated if they have to wait for more than 1 to 2 seconds for any UI feedback. So, keeping these times between .25 to .50 seconds is a pretty good target.

In conclusion…!

The business executives who are driving these mobile app initiatives are mainly concerned with how their mobile strategy could successfully drive the bottom line. This can include increased revenues, customer satisfaction, and higher retention. While testing the effectiveness of the mobile responsive design, all of these factors should be given due consideration.