What makes QA so important?
It’s all very well having the best idea for an app, but you’re going to need your final product to match that great idea you had at the beginning. That’s where QA comes in.
So, what is QA? Quality Assurance is an umbrella term to encompass all sorts of testing and ensuring quality. In broad terms, QA ensures your company’s goals align with your company’s results.
Of course, you want your app to be beautifully designed and the code to be written exceptionally well, but this isn’t the end of the cycle. You need your app to be actively tried and tested to ensure the app functions as you intended.
No amount of testing can ensure a 100% error-free app, but it can greatly increase the confidence in your app. It also aids the speed of getting your app to market, knowing users will have a positive experience of using it.
There are many different types and ways to carry out testing. Two of these include manual testing and automated testing. These options always seem to be pitted against each other, however, there are merits in both. This blog post will explore manual testing as the main form of QA and the benefits it brings, especially in enhancing and assuring the user experience is a positive one.
Increasing Confidence
Having manual checks before you bring your app to the market is a smart move. Would you buy a car without going for a test drive first? Or, make an offer on a house without viewing it first? Probably not. So why push your app to the app stores without first giving it a test run, or two.
Whether you opt for end-to-end testing which is a full in-depth look at the app, or you just want to smoke test the functionality and user flows, you’ll be safe in the knowledge that a user can at least make their way through that golden journey.
Enhancing User Experience
To enhance the user experience, it’s important to manually test the app with a real person who is making those all important key journeys. This ensures the flow of the app is as expected and that the user is seeing everything they should be seeing and interacting with.
Testing the app enables a level of trust from the user that they can use your app with ease, and thus greater confidence in your company as a whole.
Impartial Constructive Review
Although it is usually a given that you will test your own app, it’s very important to gain the views of someone else testing and using your app as they’re more than likely to pick up on aspects that you have not.
When you’re too closely involved with a project it takes someone who hasn’t had the same level of involvement to take a look and give an impartial opinion and review of the app's functionality. You want your app to be the best it can be, right? Testing is a crucial part of this process.
So, Should you QA your App?
All in all, QA is an important aspect of the app building process. It often gets overlooked, and at times at a great cost to the company and the user. Although QA cannot make any guarantees, it does greatly reduce the number of errors and bugs.
If you want confidence in your product to increase, your user's experience to be fulfilling and a healthy constructive review of your app - then QA is the right move for you.
This blog was originally written by Ellie Jones.
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