Testing user feedback on mobile devices

What is considered to be feedback ?

When the user taps the button in the application and doesn't receive an action after it, it is most likely that they will think that the app is not responding. When the user taps the button and receives the «Something went wrong» message instead of the informative message about the mistake, it is going to be quite hard to work with an application as it is hard to understand where a crash occurred. When the user tries to perform any operation and doesn’t receive any instructions and hints from the app, it will be harder for them to finish it. 

Especially this is the case, when the actions are not simple and a user is not an experienced one. In all these cases, it is most likely that the application is going to be deleted. Nowadays, almost every application has an analogue that will have the feedback connection with the user, making it easier to work with an app.

There are certain ways of having proper feedback with a user in applications:

• buttons react on the tap;
• the downloading line or spinner is shown after starting a long operation; 
• the finishing screen is shown after the process is completed;
• any problem occured is shown with a message that explains what is happening;
• hints and messages are shown to explain the functional of the application, which can be understandable not for every user of an app;
• sounds and vibrations are synchronized when there are messages.

To cut a long story short, by «feedback» means the fact that the application is reacting to the actions of the user and the user understands it. 

Nevertheless, it is important to understand that the feedback shouldn’t be rude. If each tap is going to be followed by the new window, then the user will get annoyed. Because it is not comfortable to tap an «OK» button everytime after adding a new product to the car, right?

What to check?

First of all, it is worth it to make sure that all taps are followed by the reaction and change of the state of the button. For instance, that there is a special animation that makes the user understand that something has happened. If it is planned that some elements are to be displayed (for example, a filter) after choosing the corresponding button, then the button must have the status «pressed/tapped».

The next thing to check is – informative messages of errors in case of the incorrect work of an application. For example, in case of poor or absence of Internet connection, the corresponding message must appear the content of which will inform the user about the problem. If the user is registering and typing in the invalid email, short password or leaves the field empty, it is expected for the message to appear with the information where exactly the user made a mistake.

The next step is to check the presence of the progress bar or «spinner». If there is an option to download the document in the application, then during this process it is expected the progress bar to be shown. It is needed for the user to understand that their actions are correct and the document will be downloaded successfully. Also, attention must be paid to the fact that after the end of the process, there also must be an informative message whether the document was downloaded or not. 

The «Spinner» element is mostly displayed after launching the long process by the user, for instance, the product search. Taking into consideration that there will be a lot of them, it might take some time to display all the products on the screen. In order for the user to understand that the search has already started, the spinner should be displayed. 

Specification to the mobile device will help to understand what kind of checks are needed for the user feedback testing. Usually, it consists of the information about what elements and messages are expected after performing certain actions. In case if such information is absent, it is advisable to use one’s own experience and imagine yourself as a user, analyzing the convenience of the work of the application.

Standards, requirements for the feedback on different OS  

Nowadays, there are a lot of instructions and standards for application projecting. One of them is Android Guidelines, which is a list of development recommendations for the simple and accessible for the user applications based on Android OS. This instruction contains the chapter dedicated to the recommendations connected to the correct organisation of the user feedback. It’s a Usability chapter that contains the tips for projecting the application that is understandable for users. 

Most important things from the Android Guidelines are:

• Hierarchy. Important functional buttons must be grouped in the up or bottom part of the screen. Elements with similar functionality are better to be situated next to each other.
• Focus. If there are a lot of elements on the screen, those which are main must be focused. After sending a long form with mistakes, the mistakes must be highlighted.
• If the button is small, it must have an appropriate tapping area boundary to interact with it properly. The basic size of the area must be 8dp more than the height of the button (for instance, the button height is 36 dp, the boundary of the tapping area must be 44 dp.) 
• Feedback after tapping. According to the standards, the feedback time after tapping the element is 300ms between the actual tapping and the function it corresponds to. However, depending on the context, the time can differ.

iOS has its own standards too, it is called Human Interface Guidelines. Both of the highlights are similar, because the clarity of working with an app is important regardless of the platform it was developed for.

In Human Interface Guidelines it is highlighted that each and every interactive element must differ while the tap and progress indicator must show the progress of the long operations. Animation and sound are inseparable components of the app, so the user will understand the results of an action.

Examples of bugs

On the screenshot below you can see the bug that has been found while testing the user feedback and it is a non-informative message about the mistake. In this case, the password recovery was tested by using a non-registered e-mail. It’s quite a usual situation and could happen with any user, if they made a spelling mistake. As a result – an informative message has appeared, which doesn’t answer the question of what the user did wrong and why they can’t recover a password.

This is another example of a non-informative message. The condition of the successful registration in this application is the creation of an 8 digits or more password that consists of at least one number, letter and a special symbol. In this case, the registration without internet access has been tested. After sending the form with a valid password, the «Oops – that did not work» error was shown. If the internet connection has disappeared suddenly, users won’t be able to quickly understand what they have done wrong. They can use the valid password, but will be sure that the problem is exactly in the password field. All their tries are going to fail and finally being disappointed with the application, they will most definitely delete the app, without knowing that the problem was connected to the internet connection.

The next example is the absence of the notification about the error. There is always a chance of typing  invalid data while registering. In such case, these errors must be displayed and, of course, be easy for the user to understand. On the screenshot one can see that the data written in the registration form disables the «Sign up» button: the password is too short and the email is invalid too. However, the user won’t understand what data was invalid, because no error notification is shown.

Nowadays, there are a lot of various applications. Most of their creators try to make their product as useful for users by putting themselves in the place of the user, asking themselves questions: is everything simple and available to understand enough? It’s all due to the term  «testing» presupposing the quality control of the software and a guarantee of the comfort of the final user while using it.