{"id":51610,"date":"2017-08-25T11:54:19","date_gmt":"2017-08-25T06:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/?p=51610"},"modified":"2017-10-12T16:00:51","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T10:30:51","slug":"how-to-build-smart-tv-apps-with-testing-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/how-to-build-smart-tv-apps-with-testing-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Build Winning Smart TV Apps With a Comprehensive Testing Strategy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pattern of content consumption has changed markedly in the last two decade. <\/span>From mobile phones in the 90\u2019s to smart phones to smart TVs, the demand for smart connected devices continues to grow. <\/span>According to a <\/span>Gartner<\/span><\/a> consumer survey<\/a>, worldwide, by 2018, 87 percent of the TVs shipped annually will be smart TVs. <\/span>The figure below indicates the steep rise in the demand for smart TV from 2011 to 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Source: Frost & Sullivan<\/p>\n

Brands are foraying into Smart TV applications\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

More and more brands are foraying into the smart TV app market. Entertainment and games are the biggest chunks of apps on Smart TV app stores, followed by social network and shopping apps. <\/span>Apple TV<\/span><\/a> is scaling up big time<\/a>, and Android TV has seen about 5-10 million app installs to this day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Great <\/span>user experience<\/span><\/a> is the definitive factor for the success of TV apps. Faulty apps with errors and bugs can play havoc with a brand\u2019s reputation. Therefore, it is important that app developers conduct rigorous testing before pushing their apps on smart TV app stores, as the cost associated with testing is way less than the cost accrued in finding and fixing bugs and errors post production.<\/span><\/p>\n

Achieving Quality in<\/b> Smart TV Application Development<\/b><\/h2>\n

Testing Smart TV<\/span> apps is a different ball game altogether when compared to testing mobile and tablet apps. Therefore a significant shift in testing approach needs to be made for testing and QA of smart TV apps.<\/span><\/p>\n

User perspective is an important consideration for developing smart TV apps<\/a>. Hence interface testing with people is important. While automated testing and emulators have become a norm nowadays given the amount of time it saves for testing the varied use cases, manual testing should be complemented to consider factors that automated test environments cannot. The size of the screen, distance between the user and the screen are important considerations while testing the visual rendering, image size, and placement of elements on the screen. Emulators are not as effective when testing design and layout. Therefore it is always better to use real TV. It is important to test out the UI in multiple settings.<\/p>\n

What makes<\/span> Smart TV apps testing<\/span><\/a> more complex is the availability of a sheer number of smart TV vendors, numerous versions, and models, the number of testing platforms and Operating Systems. It is essential for app providers to get their application tested for the particular Smart TV model, the platform used and the operating system\/ browser that it supports.<\/span><\/p>\n

Typical Test Types<\/b><\/h2>\n