I brought this subject up with Ray over a year or so ago, and I’m bringing it up again. I am in no way trying to beat up on Ray because I know he is busy doing all the great things he does for all of us, but my issue remains nonetheless.
I had an awesome beta tester in Maui, but he vanished. All of his apps are gone from the App Store as well. I have no idea what became of him. That said, I am not in contact with a single (locale) app dev that I could turn to as a beta tester, thus this thread.
But, the the elephant in the room is this: Put bluntly - How does one go about finding a beta tester that is trustworthy?
As far as my app goes, I do not need coding help, I would just like feedback on how it looks and operates. But, for the time being, I want that info kept private until it is released in the App Store.
I am probably not the only app dev that has this issue, so I’m reaching out hoping for a solution. I would be willing to pay a reasonable fee for this service, but again trust must be verifiable in some form or another.
I would put the beta tester in the same category as a consultant to whom I’m outsourcing software development work. In my personal opinion, while many people outsource to agencies and developers from other parts of the world, I will always find it more reliable, and more comfortable to deal with someone whom I can speak to in person, as opposed to someone via skype/phone/etc.
The benefit of having someone local is that they are under jurisdiction of the laws of your native state/country. Again, I’m not suggesting anything about other countries around the world, but personally, as a Canadian, if I’m doing business with someone, and they violate my agreement, I have the security of knowing that they can be held accountable to Canadian laws, as opposed to someone in a foreign country.
When doing beta testing, I believe it goes without saying, but definitely ensure that you have them sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement). This is for your protection.
How necessary is a beta tester? Henry Ford once pointed out that if he asked what the people wanted, they would have asked for a better horse. While I personally am an iOS developer, I also consider myself a regular “Joe”. I use apps as a consumer all the time, so I know what’s good UI/UX vs bad UI/UX. Do I really need to know what someone else thinks, when my opinion is just as good? Moreover, if I really want a second opinion, I can always ask my wife, or a friend to try my app out for me, and I know I can trust these people hands down.
If you absolutely must have an outsider to test your app, limit them to what they can test. I remember in the beginning of my learning iOS development, I sent videos of my app on the simulator to friends to see what my app did. This showed them basic functionality, and didn’t let them get access to my app in any way.
