Version 3.4 – App Reviews From Our Tester Community
Work never stops when you’re building a global testing platform. We could have sat back and taken a breather after releasing our first iPhone and iPad app last week, but that’s not how we roll. Last night our engineers pushed out yet another bundle of new code – this time version 3.4 of our testing platform.
Like most of our platform releases, this one contains the usual improvements in performance, the miscellaneous back-end features that help us more efficiently run a community of 30,000+ testers, and dozens 
of bug fixes that were all based on testing with our community. But it also has something very new that we think is going to be a big deal – reviews.
While different customers have very different testing needs, we often hear the same question at the conclusion of a test cycle. “What did the testers think about my app?” Quite often an app hasn’t seen the light of day outside of a few developers, and QA and product managers are frequently eager to hear something – anything – about how their app was received by real users. Even a little feedback can be a good early indication of market reception.
Reviews are a way to solicit structured feedback about an app. They are optional, and can be enabled as part of any functional test cycle.
Testers will be able to evaluate apps on a number of criteria, including overall design, feature breadth, performance, and more. As part of the rating process, they will also be able to provide commentary about why they felt the way they did (something that’s hard to figure out with a typical app store rating).
Customers can ask testers for more information if they feel like a review lacks enough detail or if they have questions. And just like bugs can be approved or rejected, app reviews can be rated as helpful or not helpful.
Like many features we implement, this one was based on input from our customers. We are always interested in ways to improve our platform. Do you think you have a great idea for us? uTest community members can join our tester forums and check out our Platform Feedback section. Customers can contact their project manager directly or drop us a line.
Nice feature introduced ..
I like the idea a lot, it’s going to be really helpful for the clients, and for us testers as well, providing an easier way to express our opinion regarding that specific project.
Kudos!
Hi Stanton,
Thanks for the update! I agree with Federico.
Giving the uTest Community the ability to submit reviews is a win all around.
Scott
I am interested in seeing how this feature will be used. When asked, “What did I (the tester) think about the app?”, what springs to my mind are qualitative remarks like, “Cool” or “Clunky” or “Quick” or “Slick”.
Obviously, while of some interest, i.e., nice to hear, I think these kinds of subjective descriptors provide minimal value. On the otherhand, in-depth, feature-by-feature reviews (especially if you get 50 of them) could take an inordinate amount of time to make sense of.
I think your implementation with the combination of Love/Hate voting and short comments about specific features will provide good value to clients.
Whilst I think this is a good idea, the practical problem of ensuring that the tester is in the target market needs to be addressed, by this I mean that an application aimed at teachers to be used within an interactive classroom environment would not benefit from my reviews, whilst a board-level presentation application would be enhanced by my review.
Good feature for improving my rates!
Really good feature to implement
Great Idea. This can give the feel of product well before reaching the market..