It’s possible to test mazes with users on mobile devices (i.e. smartphones and tablets). This article walks you through best practices to set up and successfully run mobile-friendly mazes.
Can Maze be used in native iOS or Android apps?
Although it’s possible to test mobile prototypes, Maze doesn’t currently support testing your own live native apps (i.e. iOS or Android apps).
How can I test my mazes on mobile?
While native app testing isn’t currently supported, you can test mobile app designs using a prototype block. Learn more about prototype testing
To test on mobile, participants must open the maze share link in a compatible mobile browser. Learn more about Maze’s browser requirements
Maze doesn’t have a dedicated mobile app for testing. However, the Maze PWA allows for a more immersive testing experience. Learn more about the Maze PWA
How do my prototypes appear to mobile users?
Android
After starting the prototype test, the prototype is displayed in fullscreen, regardless of using a regular browser or the PWA.
iOS
Prototypes don’t display in fullscreen when testing on browsers in iOS. For a more immersive testing experience, use the Maze PWA.
Optimizing Figma files for mobile users
Screen width
Desktop prototypes aren’t supported in mobile tests.
If the screen width exceeds 1024px, users on mobile won’t be able to open the maze. Instead, they’ll see the following error:
This page needs a larger screen
When testing on mobile, please make sure that the prototype screens are optimized for mobile devices.
Orientation
At the moment, we don’t support orientation changes (e.g. landscape to portrait) in Figma prototypes.
The orientation of your prototype should stay consistent throughout the test. In other words, always portrait, or always landscape.
File size
We use Figma’s own embed feature so that your prototypes render exactly as they appear in Figma. This allows you to take advantage of many of their native features. However, it also means that you may encounter issues when loading particularly large Figma prototypes or files in Maze.
Mobile participants in particular can struggle to open mazes associated with large Figma prototypes because of the relatively small amount of memory available.
On iOS devices, memory limits implemented by Apple may cause the test to time out and crash completely.
Figma files can become quite large. This can happen due to multiple pages with lots of additional frames, or prototype frames being large and/or containing high-resolution embedded PNGs. Files that are too large may lead to loading issues when importing prototypes as well as when testing.
For this reason, we highly recommend optimizing your Figma prototypes before importing them to Maze.
Learn Figma optimization best practices
Live website testing for mobile users
To test your website with mobile users, you’ll need to choose Mobile when setting the device type. With this setting, your website window will open on a mobile resolution (420px). Mobile users will only be able to open mobile tasks, not desktop tasks.
Learn more about setting the device type on website tests
Previewing your mazes on mobile
Be sure to test your prototype on representative mobile devices before sending out the maze.
This is best practice whenever using Maze, but it’s particularly important if you expect they’ll be testing with a mobile device. If you know that your participants may be using older devices, test with the oldest iPhone available to you. This way, you’re sure that the maze works as expected from beginning to end.
To see how your maze will look like for mobile users, open the preview link on a mobile device.
Using Clips
Due to technical restrictions, Clips recordings aren’t supported on mobile devices.
Maze detects when participants are using a mobile device and disables screen recording for them. Mobile participants are prompted to allow microphone and/or camera recordings. Screen sharing won’t be listed for these participants, even if enabled in the Clips settings.
When viewing the results for these mobile tests, we display the only screens in the path taken by the participant, not the actual interactions.
In such cases, you’ll see the following warning when viewing Clips recordings in the Results dashboard:
Tester screen is being simulated
This tester was on mobile. Prototype screens are being displayed without interactions.
Learn more about this limitation
Hiring from the panel
If hiring participants from the Maze panel, you can specifically target participants on mobile phones and/or tablets.
Learn more about targeting filters
Testing both mobile and desktop prototypes
You can only link one prototype per maze. We suggest creating two mazes, one containing the desktop prototype, and the other the mobile prototype.
You can then use participant screening and URL redirection to direct participants to the correct maze.
The basic setup should look like this:
- Screener block: Enterprise customers can add a Screener block containing a single-select question: ‘What type of device are you currently using?’
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Qualifying logic: If the participant replies ‘Mobile’, they qualify and continue on the maze. On the other hand, if the participant replies ‘Desktop’, they’re disqualified and taken to the rejection screen.
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Link redirection: Customize the rejection message and include a redirect CTA to the Rejection screen rerouting desktop users to the Desktop maze.
If your plan doesn’t include custom screening, you can use conditional logic to route your participants to the correct maze. You can add the redirect link to the Thank You screen instead.
However, since it’s not possible to add multiple Thank You screens, you should make it clear that only desktop participants should click the redirect button.
We also don’t recommend using this workaround if you’re using the Maze panel. Participants from our panel are entitled to compensation for participating. If you exclude panel participants from completing your test using this method, you must pay for each session.
Please note:
- Desktop users can test both desktop and mobile prototypes. However, mobile users can only test mobile prototypes. If a participant on mobile opens a maze linked to a desktop prototype, they won’t be able to run the maze, and instead will see an error: “This page needs a larger screen”. For this reason, you should first send out the maze with the mobile prototype.
- Keep two separate design files for mobile and desktop for a lightweight testing experience. Learn more about optimizing your files
- When placing a panel order for a maze with a Screener block, a panel response with screening questions costs 3 credits per qualified participant (instead of 1). This allows us to compensate participants for the time spent on screening questions, even if they don’t qualify. Learn more
Interacting with a mobile test
Prototype instructions on mobile
At the beginning of a prototype test on a mobile device, a panel with the task controls is displayed at the bottom.
To hide the panel in order to see the full screen, click Hide instructions.
Ending a prototype task on mobile
If testers get stuck after starting the task, clicking the Show instructions button () at the bottom left of the screen will reveal the instructions again, as well as the Stop task button.
Ending a live website test on mobile
Unlike prototype tests, on a website test, the mission doesn’t end automatically when the participant reaches the success screen (i.e. the final screen in a path), and a success message won’t be displayed.
When the participant believes they’ve completed the task, they should click End task in the floating modal at the bottom to end the mission and return to the maze.
Still need help?
If you have any questions or concerns, please let our Support team know — we'll be happy to help!