How Perfecto’s Wind Tunnel Uses User Profiles to Test Mobile Apps

When testing your mobile app to ensure it delivers a great digital experience, you need to know what type of person uses your app and how they are using it.

Main traits: Traveler who is always connecting to new networks, using both WiFi and carrier networks.
Loyal Apple customer who relies on multiple devices. Big user of social, banking and enterprise apps. Testing requirements: Test for newest Apple smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches.
Prepare for app conflicts, interruptions, alerts and changing networks.

Main traits: Uses older phones, mostly on WiFi. Lots of Web searching for homework; heavy user of music and fitness apps.
Testing requirements: Older phones and OS versions. Test for mobile browsers as well as native apps.

Main traits: Commutes to work daily via public transportation. On carrier networks more than WiFi. Uses old Android smartphones. Not a heavy app user.
Testing requirements: Test for consistent 2G, 3G and 4G usage. Ensure app works well on legacy devices and OSes.

Main traits: Uses newest devices; partial to phablets and tablets. Regularly plays graphics-intensive games. Constantly charging device. Relies more on WiFi.
Testing requirements: Target newest devices and various screen sizes. Test for device rotation and device under duress—CPU and memory.

Main traits: Prefers iPhones over Android. Frequent texter, online shopper and social media user. Uses a variety of apps daily and is on WiFi and cellular equally.
Testing requirements: Test for interruptions (calls, alerts, push notifications). Cover testing for iPhone 5 or 6—not newest but not legacy.

This chart details the location, network conditions, primary apps used and more about each user profile.

Perfecto’s Wind Tunnel optimizes testing for end-user conditions by defining and personifying end-user profiles and enabling testing across common scenarios such as degraded network conditions, conflicting apps and call interruptions.

Wind Tunnel features text checkpoints. It also seamlessly integrates with existing build/test tools and includes new reporting data to understand app behavior.

Wind Tunnel provides a complete test environment. Profiles contain test conditions that, if unaccounted for, can affect apps dramatically, including location changes, varying network quality, usage patterns and resource conflicts with background apps.