Common Usability Defects Of Mobile Software

July 15 10:00 2014 by Nataliia Vasylyna Print This Article

Mobile technology is very different from desktop technology. Mobile devices have a lot of features that are uncharacteristic to personal computers.

So, in course of usability testing of mobile software and desktop software one should pay attention to different aspects, mind that there are different requirements to applications for personal computers and tablets, smartphones.

Every software testing company deals with mobile versions of software products and often finds that peculiarities of mobile technology are not fully considered in an application of that kind.

Among Often Usability Lapses of Mobile Software Are:

The screens focus on several objects, like in desktop version, instead of one. This complicates interaction with a mobile program, requires more attention and concentrations from the user.
The screens are too big for a mobile device and the user must use scrolls in order to find what is needed in the program. It’s bad if a user must scroll a lot vertically or horizontally. But the worst is when it is necessary to use both vertical and horizontal scrolls. In this case the user may lose patience or confuse or overlook what is needed.
Too much gesturing or other kinds of inputs is required in order to perform the need operations or find what is required. This increases probability of accidental or incorrect inputs and requires much efforts and patience.

Such usability problems mar the impression of a mobile software product even if everything else works perfectly. The should be found in course of mobile testing and corrected.

It must be easy and effortlessly to find what is needed in a software product. The user must be able to interact with a software product intuitively. One should keep this in mind executing mobile application testing, desktop testing or web site testing.