Excellent list, thanks. Chris Stewart [email protected]
On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 3:18 PM, Joseph Earl <[email protected]>wrote: > 1) Set a whole suit of AVD devices with all the possible screen-size/ > resolution/OS version combinations > 2) When developing, test on your main target devices and a few AVDs > 3) When you are nearing completion, do a full test of your app on all > of your AVDs - automatic testing can help take a lot of the work out > of this - see Hello Testing > http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/testing/helloandroid_test.html > 4) It's initially difficult to get feedback, but hopefully these few > pointers will help > a) Put an email/support button in your info/about screen and make it > obvious straight away - I usually use a ScrollView for my about > content then have a strip at the bottom with two buttons - this way > the buttons are always visible > b) Implement an unhandled exception handler. When you get one, offer > the user the option to email a report to you (you can then fill out > all the details from the error) > c) If your next version is bringing some much requested feature or > something that will significantly improve the app. Delay the release a > bit and offer it only as a beta through your site (let people in > Market know). This way you generally get early adopters or people who > are more technically proficient and therefore more likely to actually > report errors. > > As for getting hold of devices: I'm afraid I doubt carriers will offer > any kind of plan to small/individual developers, simply because they > don't have to and to them the Android market appears to be growing at > a pretty good rate (even if a lot of them are tat, carriers can still > tout 80,000+ apps or whatever the number is these days). > > What I'd REALLY like to see is what Nokia provides for their developer > forum - remote device access > http://www.forum.nokia.com/Devices/Remote_device_access/ > Quite simply it's the only kind of solution that is going to work as > the number of devices increases, especially if some of them mess with > lower level APIs and code. User testing is all well and good, but most > users won't test your app - they'll just use it. In order to test an > app well, developers need to be able to test it themselves and be able > to use automated unit tests. > > On Jul 23, 7:24 pm, "Maps.Huge.Info (Maps API Guru)" > <[email protected]> wrote: > > You can post your apk to a website and just send a link. That's how I > > do it. The user must select "menu button-settings-applications-unknown > > source" for it to install. Users on AT&T will be SOL though, AT&T has > > disabled that feature from Android devices they sell. We all love > > AT&T, this is another reason why. > > > > As far as beta testing, there are a couple of methods I've tried. > > > > My first idea was to advertise at the bottom of the help text that I'm > > looking for beta testers. That worked well at first but the problem is > > one of interest. I had over 200 people volunteer but at the last beta, > > only a dozen actually downloaded the app and only three gave me their > > feedback. I certainly can understand why: attrition. My second idea > > was simpler and worked out a lot better. When I have a beta to test, I > > advertise in the help that I have a beta ready and give a URL where > > they can download it. This resulted in over 200 tests and a few dozen > > responders with feedback. > > > > An official beta test community of regular users would be the ideal > > situation. > > > > -John Coryat > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<android-developers%[email protected]> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
