Users are able to make amazing things on Power Apps, but sometimes those apps require debugging. Tests allows users to record themselves using an app to quickly create tests to run against their apps so they can validate expected behavior and troubleshoot as needed.

UX design, interaction design, wireframes, prototyping, usability testing

Apps can get complex, and sometimes that means needing to troubleshoot so they can continue to run reliably for the businesses they support. Without a way to do this users were taking a lot of time making hacky workarounds, like "test pages" with various controls, to test expected behaviors. When that didn’t work out they were relying on support to help, leading to a lot of overhead and an overly busy support team.

Talking to users, I was able to see the lengths that they went through to try and run tests on their own. Some key insights I learned:

Being able to set up a hierarchy of tests was important for users with more complicated apps. There could be a lot of specific flows they wanted to validate.

Many were excited by the ability to potentially record their app to generate a test, but still wanted a level of manual control as well.

Identifying placement in app maker space required a bit of iterating (should it be its own page, a mode in the app maker space, side by side etc.). Ultimately, allowing tests to take up their own standalone page allowed for the most focus for users.

In a dedicated space, users can record themselves using an app to quickly generate tests and run them to validate expected outcomes. Completed tests can be played against their app to validate expected outcome and error feedback to resolve issues. Additionally, users can generate a link to run tests any time or as part of a regular automated process. 

Impact + takeaways

Test studio recieved positive feedback from users citing the amount of time and energy this saved them in the scaling and management of their apps, a major pain point for the product. 3 months after release there was a 30% drop in support tickets related to troubleshooting apps errors.