Testing is a way to refine your app for users. When you conduct enough tests, you’ll be able to better understand user behavior, encourage clicks on certain app features and locations, and create an app that people love to use.
A/B testing is a quick and powerful means of testing your app that allows you to gather data on app usage and user behavior.
When you have data available, you can use this data to transform your app to focus on usability. A/B testing provides guidance and valuable insight into your app that you wouldn’t be able to gather without testing.
The basic testing steps that a performance testing company will follow are:
1. Determine Your Testing Goal
What is the goal of your test? Any time that you run a test, you need to fully understand the goal of your testing as it relates to your app. Would you like to:
- Increase the number of users that make in-app purchases?
- Determine which features are used most often?
- Encourage users to purchase the Pro version of your app?
- Monetize your app for maximum revenue?
Testing goals allow you to quickly generate data that is useful for your app. When you have a clear goal in mind, it’s time to determine how you’ll segment users to meet your goals.
Care should be taken to ensure that the testing is done in great details so that you do not have to carry out an exercise of the same task sometime later. If you work with the Best Mobile App Development Agencies, you can rest assured that your testing will be done according to industry-set best practices. The performance of any mobile app gets amplified once testing is done according to the right protocols.
2. Segment Users Properly
Segmenting your users is key when conducting any form of testing. You may want to conduct a 50/50 split test where half of your users see one interface or button, and the other half do not. Mobile app analytics can also help with segmentation and will provide you with a clearer way to segment users.
One segment should always be a control group.
Create as many segments as you like to collect data that is relevant to your users’ goals.
3. Design and Run Your Test
You know your testing goals and how you’ll want to segment users. Now it’s time design and run your tests. A bad test will miss all of your goals, so you’ll want to be meticulous with your test.
There should be two versions of your test: A and B.
Typically, you’ll want to change one variable in an effort to determine what changing this one variable means for your users. Multiple changes can be made via multi-variant testing, but you’ll want to hire a company or employee with ample experience to run a multi-variant test.
Some of the elements that may be included in a test are:
- Headlines and subheading changes
- Call to actions
- Forms
- Images
You’ll want to experiment with changing:
- Length
- Type
- Color
- Size
- Shape
- Placement
A lot of changes can be made to meet your goals more effectively.
4. Analyze Test Results
Once you’ve gathered enough data from your A/B testing, it’s time to analyze the data and make the appropriate changes. You may find that changing the placement, size or text of your CTA improves conversion rates by 5%.
You may have also found that certain headers make features easier to understand and leads to increased usage.
A lot of data may be presented to allow you to make changes to your application that are based on data.
Read More: Reasons Choosing Cloud for Application Development
5. Implement Test-Based Changes
Finally, the last step in any test is to implement changes that had a positive influence on user behavior and inched users closer to your testing goals. If you find that your test did not influence users in a positive manner, you’ll need to design new tests to reach your goals.
Once changes have been implemented, you’ll want to continue monitoring the results and run more A/B tests in the future.
It’s imperative that you have a control group that keeps the app the same for a certain percentage of users. You’ll also want to consider how many data points are acceptable for your testing.
You need to have an ample sample size to be able to confirm your data. If you gather data from only ten user sessions, it’s simply not enough data to be viable. You need to gather samples from hundreds or thousands of user sessions to have a better understanding of testing and the data provided. These may be basic steps to take in your app’s testing, but they will provide substantial insight into how your users behave when using your app.
