Discovery: App Performance Profiling

🔍 Your Mission (5 min)

Become a performance detective! Find apps that feel slow or sluggish, identify what's causing the problems, and research solutions.

📱 Performance Testing Phase (15 min)

Apps to Investigate

Test these types of apps (pick 3-4):

Heavy Apps (likely to have performance issues):

• Social media with lots of videos (TikTok, Instagram)
• Photo editing apps
• Games with 3D graphics
• News apps with lots of images
• Shopping apps with large catalogs

Well-Optimized Apps (for comparison):

• Native system apps (Messages, Settings)
• Banking apps (usually very optimized)
• Simple utility apps

Performance Tests to Try

Test One: Loading Speed

• Time app startup with a stopwatch
• Test switching between tabs/screens
• Try loading large lists or media-heavy content

Test 2: Scrolling Performance

• Scroll through long lists quickly
• Notice any stuttering or frame drops
• Test in different network conditions

Test 3: Memory Usage

• Use lots of features, then check if other apps slow down
• Try background/foreground app switching
• See what happens with multiple apps open

Test 4: Battery Impact

• Check battery usage in device settings
• Notice if phone gets warm during heavy usage
• Compare battery drain rates

🔍 Bottleneck Identification

Create a Performance Report

For each app tested, document:

App	Load Time	Scroll Smoothness	Memory Usage	Battery Impact	Worst Feature
Instagram	3.2s	Stutters	High	Medium	Story loading
Banking App	One.1s	Smooth	Low	Low	None noticed

Common Performance Issues to Look For

UI/Visual Issues:

• Stuttery scrolling
• Slow animations
• Delayed tap responses
• Images loading slowly or not at all

Loading Issues:

• Long startup times
• Blank screens while loading
• Network timeouts
• Cached content not loading

Memory Issues:

• App crashes unexpectedly
• Other apps become slow
• Phone becomes unresponsive
• Need to restart device

🤔 Analysis & Solutions (10 min)

Identify 3 Specific Bottlenecks

For each performance problem you found:

Problem Description:

• What exactly feels slow or broken?
• When does it happen (startup, scrolling, etc.)?
• How does it impact user experience?

Probable Causes:

• Too many high-resolution images?
• Complex animations running simultaneously?
• Loading too much data at once?
• Memory leaks from poor coding?

Possible Solutions:

• Image compression and lazy loading?
• Simpler animations or hardware acceleration?
• Pagination instead of loading everything?
• Better memory management?

Research Phase

For your 3 bottlenecks, quickly research:

• How do well-optimized apps handle similar features?
• What are the technical solutions developers use?
• Are there trade-offs between performance and features?

Example Analysis

Problem: Instagram stories load slowly and cause stuttering Cause: High-resolution videos loading all at once Solution: Preload next/previous stories only, compress video quality Trade-off: Slightly lower quality for much smoother experience

💬 Share & Discuss (5 min)

Performance Findings Round: Share your most interesting discovery:

• What surprised you about app performance?
• Which app was the most/least optimized?
• What performance problem would you prioritize fixing first?

🎯 Key Learning

Great app performance is invisible to users - they only notice when it's missing. Small optimizations can make huge differences in user satisfaction.

📤 Submit Your Work

Complete this activity and submit your work through the Activity Submission Form