We are not disappointed, it was even in our forecasts. The reason ? Misuse of an Apple interface element reserved for the addition of contacts (more details later in the article). They are professionals to the end and defend the consistency of their user interface. We almost apreciated this rejection, it means somewhere that real attention is paid to our work.

What is interesting is that we have some traces of the visit of our tester

The AddContact button

Mea culpa, we could have avoided this first rejection in a few respects better Apple recommendations, very (too much for the time we had ?) well documented.

We have used the reserved AddContact button. It is more (”+”) in white color over a blue disk whose edge is white, all with a drop shadow. We made the mistake of using it in our view “available rooms for a hotel”. In our case, it can increment the amount of a type of room. But as its name suggests, Apple dedicated it to add contacts … key function on a phone !

We expected the worst reasons for rejection. So we will promptly correct this.

Behind the scenes of Apple test

We were able to trace the session of our tester to have more information about the validation process from Apple and make coins in our previous purely speculative article. It is quite instructive.

The places, the testing conditions

Our tester used an iPhone on ATT’s 3G network, from Los Angeles, California.

Because the application is connected to the internet, we much care about the quality of this connection and our interconnections with telecom operators worldwide. We have measured the latency of its mobile network and we felt pretty good.

Our servers are located in France and we want to provide the best quality service around the world. We need to measure before taking action. We propose soon to volunteer users to give us details and measurements using the application in different parts of the globe.

Test duration

It was very fast: less than 2 minutes ! This confirms what we had calculated.

We must say for our defense that zzZ is very fast, for several obvious reasons:

• The design and usability of the application are simple to understand, my grandmother 80 years who had never used the iPhone in his life managed to book a hotel within 5 minutes !
• The number of calls to “internet” is reduced and optimized to reduce wait times. Our expert network has given much thought to this constraint throughout the application design (and we still have a margin for growth to come in future updates)
• In the list of results (coverflow) hotels are listed by increasing prices, no need to look any longer for the best hotel at the best price, it will necessarily be in the first results

The research of our tester

For the curious among you : He wanted a hotel in San Francisco, then consulted the first hotel in the hit list: “Hotel North Beach”.

He spent almost half the length of the test to see the profile of this hotel :

• Photo gallery
• Detailed information
• Geolocation of the hotel via builtin google maps

Finally, he pressed the button to select his room. The test was stopped there because of our misuse of the AddContact button.

In conclusion

We deplore the fact that he just have not pursued until after the test until the final act of booking.

What Will it be the next review of the application ? Parts not consulted during this test it will pass the validation process ? We will keep you informed as a result of our adventures …