As we get closer to releasing Pathmapp for its first round of beta users, we have been performing as many tests on our technology as we can. There’s really no better way to test anything than getting it in front of real users. So, that’s what we did with Pathmapp. About a week ago we installed the Pathmapp library into the iPhone app for CATA , The Centre Area Transportation Authority. The CATA app helps State College, PA residents figure out routes and stops for the local bus system. Performing this test allowed us to see how our library and servers would perform when collecting data from a real user base. So far, we’ve been nothing but happy with the results we are seeing. There are certainly a few trouble spots we still need to fix before everything is good to go for beta, but overall we haven’t had any major issues and it looks like our technology is performing just as smoothly as we had planned.

Getting to see the first round of real analytic data has been especially awesome. Although we have a relatively small sample size of data we already seeing some trends show up. Take a look at the chart below to see the number of application sessions from the app over the course of last weekend (Nov. 1 – 4). App usage on Friday appears to be consistently the highest with a clear spike from 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM. The other days of the weekend also follow this trend with Sunday being an exception. On Sunday we see a curious spike in activity around 1:00 AM.

With the Pathmapp library, we were also able to see exactly where users were spending time when using the app. Being an app for bus routes, it makes sense that almost 60% of the time in the app is spent looking at the map. We’re also seeing that more than a quarter of the app usage time is spent on the loading screen. This is important because that is something that clearly needs to be improved in the application. We’re also seeing that the favorites screen isn’t even one of the top five most used screens so we may want take a look at that and figure out what it is that people don’t like about the favorites feature.

Finally, we were curious about whether or not the CATA app user population had upgraded to iOS 6. Luckily, the Pathmapp library has collected that data for us too. Below we see that almost 90% of the population has already upgraded to iOS 6. This is awesome because it tells us that if we want to make any future updates using any of the snazzy new features that iOS 6 offers we shouldn’t have a problem.

Hopefully this gives you a little bit of an insight into the analytics side of Pathmapp. We are an A/B Testing platform first and foremost, but we also want to make sure you have the tools to figure out which parts of your app to test. Stay tuned as we inch closer to going into beta for more updates!