Testing your app

Automated QA and Security scanning do a lot of the checking for you. A short pass of your own, using the app the way a real person would, still catches things no test thinks of.

Use it as each kind of user

Sign in as each role you built and check what they can see. The most common bug in a first version is not a broken button, it is the wrong person seeing the wrong thing.

• Can a member open someone else's record by changing the address?
• Does the staff-only menu appear for a visitor?
• Can a signed-out visitor reach an admin page?

Walk the main task end to end

Start from the beginning and finish the job: create the record, edit it, refresh, cancel it. Watch for:

• Empty states that say nothing useful.
• Buttons that give no feedback when clicked.
• Forms that accept an empty required field.
• Lists that lose their sort or filter when you navigate back.

Check the awkward sizes

Look at the app on a phone-sized and a tablet-sized screen. Check the navigation, any tables, and long labels. Most layout problems appear between 375 and 820 pixels wide.

Try to break the data

Submit a form twice. Type a very long name. Paste an emoji into an email field. Add a record with only spaces. These cheap checks catch most crashes.

Ask the builder to review

"Read through the booking flow and tell me what could break" is a legitimate and useful request. The builder can spot unchecked inputs and missing permissions, and fix them if you agree.

Watch someone else use it

Send the preview to one person who has never seen the app and watch them use it without help. One minute of that is worth an hour of your own clicking.

Next: Automated QA.