‘Mobilification’ of travel
The world is ‘mobile’ — this now is a well-accepted fact. There is a huge exodus from web to mobile. US travel agents and suppliers are reporting that 10% of the total bookings are from mobile and it is only going to increase. There are aggregators, hotel and flight bookings, maps and local listings and more. Every travel company needs to do its business ‘on the road’ starting right now.
People want to do everything on the move and have very less tolerance for apps that don’t work as they’re supposed to. Especially true for travel — imagine a businessman who is on the road, and suddenly his plans change and he wants to reschedule everything — his air ticket, his hotel stay, his rental car, make sure his loyalty points are updated with a well — integrated system. So now, if the apps which do this are not well tested… then Houston…we have a problem. Did I make a convincing case to develop and test a super intelligent travel app?
Mobile testing is a different beast
But testing mobile apps has its own share of pain. With the traditional device and OS fragmentation issues, device coverage problems, security and data usage issues, installation and launch related matters; different hardware, software and firmware features make mobile testing a very different beast. As each component interacts with another it has very unpredictable effects on performance, security and usability. So how much ever you would like to test your app sitting at your desk or in the lab… mobile testing needs you to think out of the box, wants you to reduce the testing cycles across OS’s and ensure continuous testing.
It makes you explore various permutations and combinations of OS, device, firmware, geographies, carriers… it needs you to think about your testing strategy – manual, automated or a combination of both? Which type of app should it be — native, web or hybrid. What about developing a repository of reusable test cases for various scenarios?
Another pain point specific to travel is the excessive number of apps that need to be downloaded to create a complete travel plan. Customers reach what we call ‘app fatigue’. So, there is a need to consolidate the ecosystem to do more with less. Bottom line — how do I increase my app rating in the marketplace by making it ‘likeable’ by providing the best-in-class user experience?
Key Parameters on the Radar for My Travel App
A good testing strategy can help meet all the challenges and answer the pertinent questions. So what are specialized testing practices for apps specific to travel domain.
Functional testing:
- Installation
- Application Stability
- Accessibility
- Navigation
- Proper Look and Feel
- Application Functionality
- Social network integration
- Ad behavior
- Back end Integration
- Resource Usage
- Uninstallation
- Interruptions and error messages
- Screen size considerations
- Virus and Malware attacks
- Trojans and other vulnerabilities
- Location tracking
- Keystroke and audio tracking
- Botnet command & control (C&C)
- Privacy concerns, such as data exfiltration
- Audio and keystroke recording
- Cryptographic implementation mistakes
- Sensitive data being sent over the network insecurely or to third—party ad or analytics companies
- Local database (DB) or cache based security risks
Localization testing:
- Text and graphics rendition
- Accuracy of translations
- Correct display of translated text on every screen with a detailed check for truncations, wrap arounds, loss of meaning
- Geo based language switching
- Support for out of the box languages — EFIGS, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and several Indian languages
- Currency conversions
- Tax calculations
Load and performance testing
- CPU consumption on a device
- Memory consumption per device
- Bandwidth consumption per device
- Side by side comparison of your application across multiple devices for resource consumption during the lifecycle of the application
- Response time for selected user actions
- Loading speed and battery issues
