The Next Web |
- FIFA launches mobile apps to track your favorite football teams and follow the World Cup draw live
- Apple offers free gift cards with Black Friday deals through its online store
- JoGuru is a travel planner that optimizes your itinerary: you just pick what you want to do
- Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox introduces a one-time password card to beef up its security
- Twitter account experiments with sending personalized ‘pictures’ to your timeline (Update)
- Google’s Chromium team is building a way to launch apps without installation by just clicking a link
- Cyber Mundane: Why online shopping is overhyped, and what brands should focus on instead
- Amazon now stocks the Pebble smartwatch in five different colors for $148.99 in the US
- Will the UK face a mobile ‘spectrum crunch’ by 2020? 4G and 5G capacity increases may not be enough
- A comprehensive guide to testing your Web app: How to get the most out of your sessions
| FIFA launches mobile apps to track your favorite football teams and follow the World Cup draw live Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:10 AM PST
The FIFA brand may have become synonymous with an uber-popular football game, but the international governing body behind the name has introduced its own apps, ahead of the World Cup finals draw next week. Available for iPhone, iPad and Android, FIFA covers hundreds of competitions from around the world – both domestic and international tournaments – serving up scores, news and more from the beautiful game. Interestingly, the app will also stream live coverage of the World Cup draw on December 6, as well as schedules, a destination guide for Brazil and team profiles. It will also feature videos from the FIFA TV Studio and FIFA archives. ➤ FIFA: iPhone | iPad | Android This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Apple offers free gift cards with Black Friday deals through its online store Posted: 29 Nov 2013 12:48 AM PST As the clock struck midnight Pacific Time, heralding the start of Black Friday in the US, Apple has got into the game by releasing a host of deals for eager shoppers.
Sadly, Apple isn't pushing down the prices of its products — but it's offering some very sweet gift cards for free when you purchase selected items — with the latest iPad Air included. Here's a list of the main items and what corresponding gift cards Apple will dole out to shoppers today.
You can see the full range of deals for yourself at Apple's online store here. Thumbnail image via Dale de la Rey/AFP/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| JoGuru is a travel planner that optimizes your itinerary: you just pick what you want to do Posted: 28 Nov 2013 11:39 PM PST  Coming up with an itinerary for your holiday can be a headache-inducing task — after all, it takes so much effort to plan which attractions you would like to visit, the best way to get to your various destinations within the opening hours, and how much you need to pay at each place. JoGuru, a travel startup based in India, conducted some research on over 12,000 travelers in cities like Paris, London, New York, Delhi, Mumbai and Singapore — and found that on average, a regular traveler has to browse about eight to 20 websites, key in anything from five to 40 queries on Google, and ask up to three questions on forums or social networking websites such as TripAdvisor. All in all, this adds up to anything from two hours to two weeks of time spent planning. JoGuru aims to solve this problem with a very visual solution: it displays a map with whatever attractions you have selected, and optimizes your travel route with an algorithm — basically arranging the sequence of your attraction visits according to the distance between them and their opening and closing times.
Speaking with JoGuru CEO and co-founder Praveen Kumar recently, I appreciated the fact that the site is a useful tool for trip planning, but felt there were key elements missing that would be particularly helpful for planning an itinerary — such as hotel locations. And lo and behold, JoGuru has since added Expedia-powered hotel listings to its website. Users not only get to add hotels to their travel route, but also get to book them directly via JoGuru. Monetization also kicks in here, as JoGuru gets a 5-15 percent cut if the payment for the hotel goes through. And that's not the end of it. Kumar tells TNW that it plans for JoGuru to "become an end to end travel planning platform integrated with booking engines for hotels, flights, experiences, car rentals etc." JoGuru versus its competitorsThe use of an optimizing algorithm is clearly JoGuru's strong point. Kumar acknowledges the existence of strong (and much more established) competitors in the itinerary planning space such as Tripomatic and Plnnr. However, the convenience of being able to select whatever attractions you want to visit and let JoGuru do the rest of the legwork is probably very appealing for the time-pressed travelers — you get control right from the start over which attractions you want to see and on which day, but you don't have to plan how to get from one place to the other. Currently, users can also select and book hotels that would fit in with their itinerary, as they are also optimized for distance.
Another plus point for JoGuru is its simple visual interface, which makes it much easier to absorb compared with other trip planners that draw your route out on city maps. JoGuru currently lists content for 960 cities from more than 150 countries, in the form of City and Attraction pages, but the itinerary planning feature — which comes about only after JoGuru formats and curates the content accordingly into its algorithms — is available for 70 cities currently. The site will, however, be scaling this up to cover all the 960 cities next year. Overcoming challenges will bring JoGuru farJoGuru's itinerary feature has been live since August this year, and it currently has about 70,000 monthly active users — a figure that Kumar says has been increasing at about 100 percent month-on-month over the last six months. User acquisition will be key for JoGuru going forward — although the content on the site is owned by the company after 15 months researching and aggregating it, Kumar notes that users "do form a very strong source of content." After all, JoGuru terms itself as a "social travel network" where users get to share their itineraries as well.
Kumar also acknowledges that JoGuru faces several challenges — building a database of the logistical content of all the top attractions of the world requires constant verification, and providing a seamless experience to users by integrating with partners such as hotel booking engines and review sites needs time and plenty of effort. There is still some way to go before JoGuru becomes the go-to portal for itinerary planning — after all, there are elements still missing such as the inclusion of airport listings — but its simple design is much easier on the eye compared with many of its competitors and the optimization algorithm is really nifty. If JoGuru continues beefing up its site with more useful content, it could well be on its way to become a must-have travel planner for tourists all over the world. ➤ JoGuru Headline image via Ishara S.KODIKARA/AFP/Getty Images, other image via Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox introduces a one-time password card to beef up its security Posted: 28 Nov 2013 08:47 PM PST  One of the world's largest Bitcoin exchanges Mt. Gox announced that it has introduced a one-time password card (hat/tip CoinDesk), a physical product that it is shipping out with immediate effect, as it seeks to beef up security on the platform.
Basically the OTP card introduces a second layer of security. All you have to do is link the card to your account and set your preferences for how to use it. For example, you can choose to require pushing the "OTP" button to generate a unique password for logging in each time – the password generated is different every time you use it. Bitcoin hit a new milestone yesterday, passing the $1,000 mark for the first time — and throughout this year the virtual currency has been increasingly welcomed by merchants all over the world. Mt. Gox explains that security needs to be boosted in the light of such developments:
Mt. Gox has also rolled out other changes, one of them a modified trading interface. The exchange has made its interface cleaner and easier to use — by introducing color-coding based on trading activity, a new confirmation step before finalizing the trade, and a display that shows applicable fees for the trade. As Mt. Gox seeks to make Bitcoin transactions go through faster, it will also now require all Bitcoin transfers to pay the standard 0.001 BTC network fee. Mt. Gox users will also be getting an increased limit for Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) withdrawals from Poland. All these changes come towards the end of a year in which Japan-based Mt. Gox has been beset with growing pains. The company suspended US dollar trading for two weeks in June and July to improve its service, and has suffered a number of DDoS attacks in the past — it was even forced to halt trading in April following a major Bitcoin price crash. However, in August Mt. Gox announced that it is now running on Akamai, a move that will bring greater stability to the growing platform. As a service that allows Internet users to trade real-world currency for Bitcoin and vice-versa, improving its stability and security will help it go a long way as Bitcoin becomes more widely accepted. To this extent, Mt. Gox has also launched Bitcoins.com, an information site for all things Bitcoin, as it seeks to introduce the virtual currency to more people. Headline image via George Frey/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Twitter account experiments with sending personalized ‘pictures’ to your timeline (Update) Posted: 28 Nov 2013 06:12 PM PST  UPDATE: @magicpixx has said that it isn't a Twitter experiment — its updated bio states that it's a "highly experimental bot" by Twitter engineer William Morgan. Our original story is as follows. Twitter has been rolling out a string of new experiments recently — and it seems like the latest one is to do with images: it sends "pictures" apparently personally selected by Twitter (or rather possibly an automated Twitter bot) to your timeline. A new account @magicpixx has surfaced, and its bio reads as follows:
The way it works is pretty cool; here's an example. The "pictures" span a wide range — from photos to maps to slideshows to memes. While we can't be 100% sure that this is a Twitter-led initiative, there are (big) hints that suggest so. Despite the spelling error in @magicpixx's bio — which could contribute to some skepticism that Twitter is actually behind it — Twitter engineer William Morgan has been actively tweeting about the account and answering questions users have about how @magicpixx works. The new account is also extremely similar to previous experiments @magicrecs – which sends users personalized suggestions about interesting accounts and tweets — and @eventparrot – which sends breaking news via direct messages to its users. It also follows closely after another apparent Twitter experiment @magicstats – which predicts what tweets are going to go viral. For Twitter to dabble in personalized images seems to hint that the @magixpixx experiment could also eventually lead to a way to send relevant ads to users when they tweet that they're in a particular location or express their interest in buying something. Considering that Twitter recently became a public company, ads — which are its primary source of income — play a key role in growing its business and appealing to investors. Twitter's Vice President of Engineering Alex Roetter has said before that the company is constantly working on experiments to help "make it easier to follow what you care about, connect with people, and discover something new" — and coincidentally, pointing the press to this very post is Twitter's standard response to questions about features that appear or disappear on the service. Headline image via Andrew Burton/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Google’s Chromium team is building a way to launch apps without installation by just clicking a link Posted: 28 Nov 2013 10:21 AM PST  Google really wants Chrome apps to take off. Not only has the company added rich notifications, in-app payments, and an app launcher into its browser, but now it's developing ephemeral apps that launch by just clicking a link. There are two separate components here. Ephemeral apps (you can enable this under the chrome://flags/#enable-ephemeral-apps flag) let you try a Chrome app before installing it. Linkable ephemeral apps (under the chrome://flags/#enable-linkable-ephemeral-apps flag) meanwhile allow you to launch said apps from hyperlinks. Both features were first spotted by developer and Google open-source Chromium evangelist François Beaufort. The former was committed a month ago and the second was added yesterday. Google first changed the app launcher user interface to consider ephemeral apps. The company added a Launch button to the Chrome Web Store results in the app launcher, intended for launching apps without installation in Chrome. If an app does not have any permission warnings, the launch prompt will be skipped and just fire up immediately. Here's how this looks (notice the Add and Launch buttons replace the current Install button):
As for the launching ephemeral apps from hyperlinks, Google separated the two features into two separate flags to ensure that only links appearing on a Google search results page will launch the app. This should give the company more control over stopping malware from just launching:
This could have a significant impact on Chrome app adoption. If users can just "click to try" rather than deciding if they want to install an app, Google will be effectively removing yet another hurdle for its Chrome Web Store platform. Chromium is the open source Web browser project that shares much of the same code as Google Chrome, and new features are often added there first. There's clearly still a lot of work to be done before we see this feature show up in Chrome, but given that the company is already making changes to the Chrome Web Store, it's clear this is another one of those "when" instead of "if" questions. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Cyber Mundane: Why online shopping is overhyped, and what brands should focus on instead Posted: 28 Nov 2013 10:10 AM PST  Blair Swedeen is the SVP of Strategy & Business Development, Placecast. Every year around this time, we hear about some new survey that says Americans plan to do more online shopping for the holidays than ever before. While these surveys may be accurate, we must remember that there is a difference between wanting to do something and actually doing it. I may want to do all my shopping online to avoid lines – but the fact is, I'm not going to. Why? While e-commerce has improved dramatically over the last 19 years since Amazon was founded, the fact remains that over 90 percent of all commerce is still being done in the brick-and-mortar world according to Forrester Research. The firm predicts online retail will rise to reach $231 billion this year – but that's still just 8 percent of the total retail pie! As Mike Ghaffary at Yelp excellently articulated earlier this year, while some categories like electronics and media will be subsumed by e-commerce players, the vast majority of spend and categories will remain offline for the foreseeable future. In my own experience, no matter how detailed the description of an article of clothing may be online, I still want to try it on, see how it fits, and feel how comfortable it is before I buy it. And of course, if I want to take my family out for a holiday dinner, I'm not going to whisk them away to the Internet and feed them virtual mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. There are some areas of retail that will simply never move online, such as clothing, shoes, restaurants, venue entertainment, beauty and fitness, and groceries.
And finally, there is that physical rush we get when we save money – especially during the holidays, as we have many gifts to buy and a limited budget. There's a reason why people line up at dawn (or earlier!) outside the doors on Black Friday – not just to get the newest Xbox, but also to get the best deals, and the rush of excitement from saving money. So this holiday season, brands should be looking to connect with consumers in the real world – not online. Here are three ways they can do that: Rewards programs"Rewards are the No. 1 reason why customers select the card, and there's almost a battle to provide the highest rewards." – Jim Miller, senior director of banking services at J.D. Power & Associates "What we've learned over time is, our best customers value rewards. – Edward Gilligan, president of American Express (source: Bloomberg) Credit card companies understand the power of rewards programs to encourage consumers to spend more in stores, and have set up highly-competitive programs to sway people to use their cards. Bank of America's rewards program features 2 percent cash back on grocery purchases, and 3 percent cash back on gas, while the Blue Cash Preferred Card by American Express card gives its users 3 percent back on purchases made at most department stores and gas stations. The 1-2-3 REWARDS® Visa Card gives card-carriers unlimited rewards at major retailers worldwide. Brands that want to reach consumers in the real world should partner with credit card companies, and consider how their own rewards programs can be maximized. My Starbucks Rewards is a great example of a loyalty program that delivers incentives primarily through its mobile app. Starbucks makes the app experience fun to use and providing incentives to visit their stores often – for every Starbucks purchase (in their stores or at grocery stores), people can earn Stars to receive benefits like free drinks, free food, or free refills. Local mobile marketingIt's well understood that solid offers will pull customers into a given retail location. A Banana Republic mobile campaign lured shoppers in by offering 10 percent off a purchase while providing a map that shows all local store locations as well as a link to the brand's catalog. More and more shoppers are carrying smartphones while they shop: Google estimates it's as many as 8 out of 10 shoppers. For savvy smartphone shoppers, discovering a great deal at a new location is a fun and exciting opportunity to save. One study found that more than a third of shoppers who received offers ended up going to a retailer they had never been to before.
Location-based mobile marketing is a great way to turn window shoppers into actual shoppers this holiday season – taking a cue from the online world, where offers pop-up while browsing. Investigate ways to offer local deals for your brand via companies like Groupon, Foursquare, Facebook Places, and Google Offers. It's also important to pay attention to those mobile ads while you are out shopping – this season, businesses like Quiznos are delivering more special deals on-the-fly that will only show up in apps if you are near a participating store, and can only be fulfilled at that store. Brands can now turn on these campaigns in as little as a few hours depending on foot traffic and available inventory. Prove you're better than onlineIf you can't beat 'em…try harder. We all know that it's hard to match the prices of online stores, because they don't have to pay the bills associated with running a physical store. But there are ways to battle the online giants. Annkur Agarwal, CEO of PriceBaba, advised retailers: "Integrating with price search services like milo.com, eBay Now and Google Shopping is a good way to get online visibility and take traffic away from Amazon." Many physical stores will match competitors' online prices. Savvy store owners know the competitive landscape well, and will be able to match online deals during this holiday season. And if matching the prices isn't an option, then make your store visit memorable by hosting an event, investing more in displays, or hiring local talent to sing holiday songs inside your store. Make an in-store visit a memorable experience for your customers – rich with sounds, smells and sights that you just can't replicate on the Internet. Also be sure to post your sales and special offers to sites like RetailMeNot, the popular crowd-sourced coupon and offer portal. In 2012, nearly 9 million consumers turned to RetailMeNot to find offers for their holiday shopping; I expect that number to near 10 million this year. My final take: The malls and stores of America are certainly evolving, but they're not in danger of dying. While Web traffic on 'Cyber Mundane' may be growing, there will always be a need for consumers to visit physical stores – the question is, what are the best ways to bring them in to your store and enhance the experience while they are there? How much of your shopping will be done in stores this year? What do you like about the holiday shopping scene? Photo by Michael Nagle/Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Amazon now stocks the Pebble smartwatch in five different colors for $148.99 in the US Posted: 28 Nov 2013 09:05 AM PST If you're still in the market for a smartwatch, it's now possible to order the Pebble from Amazon in the United States. The Kickstarter-funded e-ink wristwatch will set you back $148.99 and is available in black, grey, orange, red or white. The Pebble has been available in Best Buy stores since July, but hitting Amazon's product listings should give the startup a healthy sales bump in time for the Christmas rush. Earlier this month, Pebble announced a sizable update to its iOS app that brought full integration with Apple's Notification Center in iOS 7. That enabled alerts from popular third-party apps such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, greatly expanding the functionality of the smartwatch. ➤ Pebble Smartwatch, Amazon (Via Engadget/Twitter) Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Will the UK face a mobile ‘spectrum crunch’ by 2020? 4G and 5G capacity increases may not be enough Posted: 28 Nov 2013 08:54 AM PST  Mobile spectrum is a key resource in keeping our smartphones, tablets, and other devices connected to the Internet. Without it, we simply wouldn't have any connectivity whatsoever while away from a fixed-line. Unfortunately, as well as being a key resource, it's also an increasingly rare one. Mobile data usage figures are shooting through the roof as we browse the Web and use more apps and services from our mobile devices, and as the demand continues to increase apace, the network's task of dealing with it gets harder. For now, we're okay, but Ofcom (the UK's telecom watchdog) has already started looking at ways that more spectrum could be made available for the next generation of mobile services, currently being bandied about under the term 5G, despite there being no technical definition of what this will be when standardized. So, if Ofcom's already looking at ways to free up more spectrum so we can keep downloading apps, browsing the Web and doing all the other things we do on a smartphone, tablet and other devices, then what's the problem? Growing painsIn Ofcom's announcement last week, it predicted that by 2030, the UK's mobile data consumption will have increased 25 times from what it is today, and as such is looking into a range of measures to provide the capacity for this demand, like repurposing specific bands that are currently used for terrestrial TV as usable for 4G or 5G. However, while Ofcom is looking up to 2030, spectrum analysis specialists Real Wireless say that there's a capacity crunch headed for the UK by 2020, unless around 300MHz more cellular and 350MHz more WiFi spectrum is made available. "Although new spectrum provided in the 4G auction has given some breathing space in meeting new demand growth, we will face a renewed spectrum crunch in around 2020 without further action," said Simon Saunders, Technology Director and co-founder of Real Wireless. "The challenge faced by governments and regulators is how best to manage this demand and ensure that consumers and other wireless users continue to see an improvement in their service, while ensuring other critical services still have access to the spectrum they need." These numbers weren't just plucked out the air either, if you'll pardon the pun. To come up with them, Real Wireless used an updated version of its CAPisce spectrum, technology, population and geography modelling tool to evaluate current networks, look at the potential of the latest 4G, Wi-Fi and white space technologies, as well as new frequency bands being considered for cellular use. It was this system that was used by Ofcom ahead of the 4G spectrum auctions at the start of the year. In response to our enquiries, an Ofcom spokesperson said:
A storm is brewingHowever, Saunders told TNW that this isn't the same old story warning about capacity that we've heard before:
Allocating new bands to mobile comes with its own set of problems – finding alternative room for the bands you have to move, for one – but Ofcom will be headed to the ITU's World Radio Conference 2015 to acquire new mobile spectrum allocations in pursuit of heading the problem off at the pass. However, any spectrum it gets will come from repurposing it from its current use, and users. The result could be what Saunders describes as "highly contentious and likely [to] create an interesting tension between the different public and industry uses of the spectrum". Some of the already-identified sectors include TV companies, PMSE (Programme Makers and Special Events – outdoor broadcasters, essentially), satellite companies, any of which could put up some resistance to their spectrum being refarmed for mobile data use. Saunders says that any such resistance wouldn't be unfounded either:
None of this is news to Ofcom. It's already aware of the need and is looking into it, but with its plans looking ahead to 2030 and a crunch point predicted by 2020, clearly some other solutions will have to be found and agreed upon by all involved along the way. If an answer isn't found and growth continues to increase, operators will have to find other ways of reducing the demand from consumers. "Primarily, it will become far more likely that operators will have to find ways to dampen the growth in demand, whether that's through pricing, caps, service barring etc.," Saunders said. "Operators are getting very good at managing these issues with the aim of avoiding the more extreme consequences of the crunch, but limiting usage will ultimately limit the benefits that mobile is bringing to users, society and even the operators themselves." The introduction of 4G in the UK without unlimted data plans has already shown that new technologies don't necessarily come with equal restrictions as the previous generation of services. In this example, the speeds are faster, but anyone transferring to a limited 4G contract from an unlimited 3G one will feel the need to be far more careful than they had previously been to ensure they don't go over their data budget. A step forward in one way, but a step back in another. Mobile technologies are about convenience above all else, which is why it's essential that an answer to the impending crunch is found, for industry and consumers alike. Featured Image Credit – Getty Images This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| A comprehensive guide to testing your Web app: How to get the most out of your sessions Posted: 28 Nov 2013 08:35 AM PST  We're now living in a time where users expect as much functionality, reliability and flexibility from Web apps as desktop programs. All our data is slowly but surely moving into the cloud, and businesses are looking to the Web for software to easily implement and deploy across the board – whether it's accounting, CRM or inventory management. That puts a lot of pressure on developers to deliver rock-solid Web apps that users can genuinely depend on for work and play. That's why it's so important to thoroughly test your Web app before launch. Presenting a quality app that doesn't break, works efficiently and delights users naturally builds a foundation of trust between you and your customers, and they'll be happy to use it more often and even refer it to peers. Plus, you'll have far fewer customer support issues to deal with, leading to savings on costs and manpower. Let's take a look at how we can test our web apps to ensure that we're on track for a successful opening day. What should you test?Whether your app helps users edit photos, send invoices, connect with friends or track social influence, you'll generally need to look at four broad areas while testing your app: Functionality testing
Users expect apps to function accurately, quickly and consistently. That means you have to kick the tires on everything that helps a user achieve a result of some sort. Some common functional elements that require thorough testing include: Forms: everything from feedback surveys to creating new to-dos, to subscribing to a newsletter. Check that submissions work correctly and are properly connected to your database, and that all fields accept input as necessary. File manipulation and calculations: image and document uploads, editing and computation functionality and correct output. Ensure that you try as many scenarios as you can think of in which users might try your app, and accommodate them as far as possible. Also, look at how efficient your app is at computing and displaying results, to allow for a smooth user experience. Search: if your app allows users to search through content, files or documentation, ensure that your search engine comprehensively indexes this information, updates itself regularly and is quick to look up and display relevant results. Media components: test for smooth and seamless audio and video playback, animations and interactive media (like games and graphics tools). These components should function as expected and not break or slow down the rest of the app while loading or running. Scripts and libraries: ensure that your scripts (say, for image display or Ajax page loads) are compatible with all the various browsers your audience may use to access your app, and measure their load times to help optimize performance. If your scripts are only compatible with certain browsers, make sure they degrade gracefully on others so that all users get the best possible experience of your app. Other elements you should check for complete functionality in, include notification systems, user profiles, and administration dashboards. User interface and usability testingNot only should your Web app run like a well-oiled machine, but it should also provide a quality front-end experience for all your users. To achieve this, you'll need to consider all the visual and textual elements that your users encounter, and test them to ensure they are displayed correctly and efficiently. What should you keep your eye on? Navigation: all links to and from your homepage should be prominent and pointed to the right destination pages. Accessibility: ensure, as far as possible, that your app is easy to use even for those with disabilities or impairments of vision or motor functions. The W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines should help you identify and approach ways to make your app more universally user-friendly. Cross browser testing: users will likely access your site from numerous combinations of browsers and operating systems, and your app may not display the same way across all of them. Be sure to test as many of these combinations as possible to ensure that your app works as intended, for as wide a user base as possible. Error messages and warnings: your app is bound to break at some point, even if it's not your fault. Make sure that your app is descriptive and helpful when users encounter an issue such as a 404 page or an unsuccessful upload. Help and documentation: not all users will be equally comfortable using your app; some may need assistance the first few times, while others might experience an issue even though they're familiar with the product. Run through your app to check that documentation and/or support channels are easily found and accessible from any module or page. Layouts: test your app to make sure it displays correctly and consistently in as many browsers and viewport sizes as possible. You'll also want to go over all animations, interactions (such as drag-and-drop features and modal windows), fonts and glyphs (especially web fonts) and of course, front-end performance (page render speeds, and image and script load times) while you're at it. Security testingMost Web apps capture and store data from users, including their personal details, billing information and work/personal files — and these users trust you to keep that data secure. Your app should:
Hackers can target your app at any time and from anywhere, so it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with their methods and the kinds of vulnerabilities they look for. The most common attacks launched on web sites and apps include: Cross-site scripting: when a website is tricked into accepting malicious code, which it spreads to visitors) SQL injection: when a hacker, through a user input vulnerability, runs an SQL command on the app's database, leading to damage or theft of user data. These generally occur due to the improper neutralization of special elements used in SQL commands or OS commands. DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks: when an app is rendered unavailable to users, usually by flooding the target server with requests so that it slows to a crawl or becomes unresponsive.
You can test for the above and more, with the help of white-hat security experts or any of a number of web tools designed for automated security probes and tests. Load testingUsers will expect your app to run as fast as the day they first tried it, whether you've got 10 customers or 10,000. Plus, you might experience spikes in traffic at certain times of the day, month or year, or when your promo went viral or you were featured in a prominent publication. Test your app and its server environment to ensure that your product works well regardless of how many users are logged in (within reason, of course). Most quality Web hosts offer solutions that can scale up to handle additional traffic in real-time, so be sure to look into that when shopping around for a host. How should you test your app?Testing is an integral part of any web project build, and requires a systematic approach in order to cover maximum ground using the limited time and resources available to do so. Here's are the steps involved in testing a typical Web app. 1) Set goalsIn most cases, testing is a time-bound process, particularly when gearing up an app for launch. That's why it's important to prioritize which functions of your app you need to test thoroughly before your app is out the door and in the wild. For example, if you're building an app to allow customers to create online stores, you'll want to prioritize the testing of payment gateway connections over text alignment issues. Prioritizing in this manner not only helps you ensure that the key functions of your app are up and running, but also allows you to set clear expectations for the entire team (testers, developers, management et al) at crunch-time, and have everyone focus in the right direction to ensure a smooth launch. You can always continue to test and sort out smaller issues and customer-reported issues after your app has gone live. 2) Define processes and use casesBefore beginning to test your app, it's important to define exactly how you and your team will go about the entire process. Start by gathering all the available documentation (right from marketing content to user startup guides) and sharing it with your testers. Next, chalk out possible use cases and even improbable ones to account for as many scenarios in which your users may encounter your app, to see if your product breaks. Be sure to set up a bug tracking tool that testers can use to report issues, and that developers and designers can use to identify, replicate and fix bugs. 3) Set up a test environmentOnce your build is ready for testing, deploy it on a restricted-access server environment that's identical to your intended live server. This will allow testers to take your app for a spin in conditions similar to when it's out in the real world, and identify issues that may go unnoticed when developing and testing on a local server. For example, in a location-aware app, a large SVG image of a map might take too long to load and time out, leaving a mobile user in the lurch and unsure of how to proceed or retrace his steps. 4) Actual unit testingThis is when you begin to really put your app through its paces, having prepared your processes for doing so. "Most testing processes for Web apps are too laborious to run through in an afternoon — or even a week's worth of afternoons —so it's important to break it into manageable chunks for testing," says Jeremy Petter, QA guru at Flow, an online task management and collaboration app.
Because the list is modular, you can add or remove items or tags as the software changes through development. or as I identify likely points of regression. And while such plans exist to make sure the details don't get forgotten, my focus shifts to specific areas based on the goals of our present sprint, what we hear from testers, and what our users report via support." 5) Verify your codeIn order to deliver a clean, error-free experience that's easy to maintain, you should validate your code and ensure it's up to established Web standards. Doing so will not only make for increased compatibility across browsers, but also better performance. 6) Load testing and performance tuningTest your app and its environment to see if it can stand up to massive surges in traffic and bandwidth requirements, and look for snags that might be hindering your app's performance. You can also consider using available online services to monitor user traffic, server utilization, and issues caused by imperfect code and slow-loading scripts, and make tweaks to increase speed and efficiency in your app. 7) Security testingFinally, test your app to make sure it's bullet-proof and safe from malicious hackers, beginning with basic app availability and uptime, right up to user data integrity. Does Web app testing differ from mobile app testing?Not by much, particularly if the mobile and Web apps offer similar functionality. Says Petter, "Most of the same principles apply to both web and mobile apps and we aim to have our web apps feel as immersive and responsive as our native applications. This means testing against a large number of browsers and devices, across desktop, mobile and tablet configurations to ensure the best possible experience. "It also means predicting how our software will interact with both general browser features such as font restrictions and supplemental tools such as ad blockers and password managers. The landscape for such features is evolving rapidly, and our strategies to test against them must be informed by direct feedback via support and internal alpha testing." Two top tips for testingAdvanced testing involves getting your customer hat on. "Think how a customer would use each feature before testing it thoroughly," says Sahil Parikh, who's currently building Brightpod, a project management app for marketing teams. Putting yourself in a customer's shoes will help you develop realistic use cases and scenarios to try out, and eliminate possible errors before they happen. Jeremy Petter has a tip for hands-on testers. "Testing is detail-oriented and requires intense concentration. I find that my most productive testing takes place in the first hour or two of a given session, and I try to switch projects every few hours to maximize my focus and productivity," he says. "Even switching to Internet Explorer to incorporate compatibility testing into whatever else I'm working on can be enough of a change of to keep my mind alert. To use an analogy, chess is a highly strategic game, but is often won or lost based on a momentary loss of focus. Instead of honing in on a particular detail or strategy, I suggest doing everything possible to keep a relaxed, open mind and to avoid burnout." Image credit: Oleksiy Mark/Shutterstock This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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