iOS iOS, WatchOS, TVOS, macOS Devs - Do you Test your work?

[DeepIn2U]

I’m curious … really really curious if developers, teams of developers or companies that even outsource to developers actually test their software as in USING it?

Too often an application listed in the store as this/that has or does that/this … yet when actually using it the experience is terrible.

Example Mogo app.
Mogo, based in Canada is a financial company the a) PayDay Loans, b) allows you get rewards by sharing knowledge of the app (sharing the app with people you know So they can become customers), c) allows you to purchase bitcoin or have transaction rewards as automatic Bitcoin purchases And sooner/later d) become an online only bank of sorts. Oh yeah they offer a Visa card to help you manage your debt - it’s prepaid with decent top up time.

When using this app It’s frustrating - but I did message their support team via twitter, email and via rating in App Store.
The service only allows you to have 2 trusted devices for you to be signed into. Any updates throws the app into wack for a few attempts on signing in (on 1 of those 2 trusted devices) Before it resolves the prompt.
FaceID/Touch ID is possible for signing in.
Uploading funds from your bank to the Visa card usually takes about 15 seconds - great.
BUT you’re consistently ASKED after the transfer is complete to SETUP a spending threshold! it’s annoying af - and it never learns your response being NO.
You have to tap, tap, tap to navigate anywhere to use the apps features/functions.

Just an example above I’m sure many more apps that I or others can complain about.

The focus here is when developers create their apps, do they upload to an iPhone, Watch, AppleTV and actually USE the app from start - as if they didn’t code it? Do they enlist help from family/friends on the app for feedback? TestFlight is an option too.

It’s one thing to test via an SDK environment, it’s another to fully test in the real world.

 

[casperes1996]

I am not saying I am personally offended, but this statement is semi-offensive to folk in the software development industry. It's sort of like going into a mechanics forum and saying "Do no mechanics give a **** about the repairs they do for their customers? I've had bad service at a few mechanics so I can only conclude that all you bastards just like pissing on us". A bit extreme example, but I hope the point is clear.

In any case, to take your question more at face value, it depends. "Dogfooding" your work is often something that's done. I.e. using the product you make. But it's not always applicable. I mean, software engineers who make software for pilots can hardly be expected to also be pilots. Or those who make equipment for doctors.
Larger software development houses will also often have dedicated departments whose only job is QA and testing. The programmers are not necessarily responsible for that. But it **is** still a part of the software development pipeline.

Automated unit and integration tests are vital to software development, but they are made to test correct behaviour against a given specification, they are not made to design said specification.

And here's the big kicker; In most cases what you consider annoying or bad UX is intentionally made to be that way. And it's very very very rarely if ever a decision the developers agree with, but one made for various monetisation reasons. Even sometimes invisibly so - things that can seem innocuous can also be for monetisation reasons. I am not saying your example app is doing this at all, but as an arbitrary example, the spending limit thing they bug you about could be because they want to know what your expected spending limit is so they can sell on that information to advertising info aggregators. Again, I am not accusing them of doing this, just an arbitrary example.

Regardless of all of this, developers will take pride in the work they do and absolutely do run their own software when it makes sense to do so. And the development industry generally employs testers too. Not everyone does. But it is absolutely done