Bugs of the Month - July

These bugs exemplify the actual processes that your users go through when interacting with your app. You can prevent these types of issues from ever reaching your users with thorough and creative software testing, like the kind performed by our tester community. Here are some of the problems our customers thanked us for finding before they ever made their way to their users.

This bug was found on a streaming app by a tester doing something we've all probably done. We go to our favorite streaming service and start looking for something to watch. We scroll and scroll, go back and forth between categories, and yet somehow can't seem to find something interesting even with(because of?) the hundreds of options available to us.

Developers can try to account for this behavior with automation or internal manual testers. However, the sheer volume of options makes it a herculean task to cover all variations. So why not let a hundred humans at it. These patterns come naturally and are unique to every individual. In contrast to the developers who intended for us to use their app in a specific way. In reference to this bug, our customer said, "I'd seen this behavior happen but couldn't figure out the steps!" With the crowd's help, they know the steps and made sure that this issue never makes it to production.

This issue may seem like an edge case, but even edge cases can seriously hamper user experience. I know that I have mistyped things into form fields many a time. Now imagine that the entire site crashed when I did this, and I lost all the information I had filled out before it. I would be frustrated and may not take the time to fill out the form again. A bounce is the last thing the company wants, and that's why our customers were so happy that we found this issue.

Unexpected edge cases highlight the importance of creative and thorough testing. If this did not come up in the development process, it is even more critical that it be brought up in the testing process. No stone should be left unturned when you are planning on releasing something revenue-generating to the public.

To make this bug even harder to identify, the notifications did turn on. It just did not show that to the user on the settings page. This issue could lead a user into a hilarious loop. They enable their notifications and scroll to check on the rest of their settings. As they go back up, they see that the settings aren't enabled. So they "re-enable" them and go back down to make sure nothing else has been affected. Everything looks fine, but to their surprise, the notifications are set to off again! While an educated user knows there are other ways to check, who's to say, they won't just keep trying. It falls on the company to make this clear, and our customers know that. That's why even they thought this bug was "a really funny one."

There all kinds of bugs out there that may seem like edge cases to a developer but seriously impact the users. That's why companies invest in thorough and thoughtful software QA. If you want to see what kind of bugs our crowd can find on your website or app, reach out here.