What is your iPhone app testing strategy?

Question

Before submitting to the App Store, it is a good idea to test the App once again precisely. I tend to install my App on a device and give it a friend for a while. Then I tak

Answer 1

You are talking about two different things:

Defect testing and usability testing.

Or I think you may be. The other answers are about defect testing, your approach sounds like usability testing - or a mix of both.

Defect testing is about finding errors in your code. Other people have responded about this:

1. Have unit tests but don't rely on them
2. User testing - firstly by you. Think about your code and what might break it. Throck on controls, paste a zillion lines of text into your editos
3. Have other people who are not familiar with the code use the app
4. use tools like ObjectAlloc and clang to find non-functional defects

In my mind testing is not about tools but the attitude. How hard you look for defects and how honest you are about reporting your own defects.

You should also have a good defect tracking system to keep a handle on them.

Usability testing is more difficult. People do not understand their own thought process when interacting with software.

A good (cheap) approach is to give the softwar eto your friend and then ask him to speak outloud what he is thinking. Then you get statments like "I see this screen but I don't know what to press (you need to add help or cues). I'm not sure if deleted this worked (you need to add feedback). Etc.

You can buy very sophisticated tools to help with user testing but this approach gets a long way there.