Improve App Stability and Bug Fixes

Prioritize fixing reported bugs, including issues with registration, card creation, text formatting, image loading, and app crashes. Implement robust error handling and testing procedures to ensure a stable user experience.

Priority Score

Quick estimate for initial prioritization

1.2B-Tier

Effort

6/10

Time Estimate

4 weeks

Decompose Bug Fixing and Stability Work

The project involves addressing several distinct bug categories and implementing systemic stability improvements. We can break this down into:

Specific Bug Fixes: Targeting registration, card creation, text formatting, image loading.
Crash Analysis & Resolution: Investigating and fixing the root causes of app crashes.
Error Handling Implementation: Adding robust error handling across key user flows.
Testing Procedure Enhancement: Implementing automated tests and improving QA processes.
Deployment & Monitoring: Rolling out fixes and monitoring stability post-release.

Estimate Time for Specific Bug Fixes

Let's estimate the effort for each category of specific bugs:

Registration Issues: Debugging and fixing potential issues with email/password validation, social logins, or API integrations. Estimate: ~8 hours.
Card Creation Issues: Investigating why cards aren't created (UI glitches, data saving errors, backend sync problems). Estimate: ~12 hours.
Text Formatting Issues: Fixing rendering problems with different fonts, sizes, or special characters. Estimate: ~6 hours.
Image Loading Issues: Debugging slow loading, broken images, or incorrect display (network, caching, format issues). Estimate: ~10 hours.

Total for Specific Bugs: 8 + 12 + 6 + 10 = 36 hours.

Estimate Time for Crash Resolution and Error Handling

Addressing app crashes and implementing better error handling requires dedicated investigation and development:

Crash Analysis: Triaging crash reports, reproducing issues, identifying root causes (e.g., memory leaks, null pointer exceptions, OS-specific bugs). Estimate: ~20 hours.
Crash Fix Implementation: Developing and testing solutions for identified crashes. Estimate: ~16 hours.
Robust Error Handling: Implementing user-friendly error messages and fallback mechanisms for common failures (network, API, data processing). Estimate: ~15 hours.

Total for Crashes & Error Handling: 20 + 16 + 15 = 51 hours.

Estimate Time for Testing and Deployment

Ensuring stability requires robust testing and a careful rollout:

Automated Testing: Writing new unit and integration tests for critical flows affected by bugs. Estimate: ~24 hours.
Manual QA Testing: Dedicated regression testing and exploratory testing to catch new issues. Estimate: ~20 hours.
Deployment & Monitoring: Planning and executing the release, setting up enhanced monitoring for stability metrics. Estimate: ~8 hours.

Total for Testing & Deployment: 24 + 20 + 8 = 52 hours.

Aggregate Estimates and Calculate Total Time

Summing up the estimates from previous steps:

Specific Bug Fixes: 36 hours
Crash Resolution & Error Handling: 51 hours
Testing & Deployment: 52 hours

Subtotal: 36 + 51 + 52 = 139 hours.

Adding a buffer for unexpected issues, code reviews, and inter-team dependencies (approx. 20%): 139 * 1.20 = 166.8 hours.

Converting to workdays (assuming 8-hour workdays): 166.8 hours / 8 hours/day = ~21 days.

This translates to roughly 4 weeks of focused development effort.

Derive Effort Score

A time estimate of ~4 weeks falls into the Medium (3-6 weeks) category on our effort scale. This involves significant debugging across multiple areas and implementing systemic improvements, rather than a single feature.

Given the breadth of bug categories, the need for deep investigation into crashes, and the inclusion of enhanced testing, this project leans towards the higher end of the medium range.

EFFORT SCORE = 6

Time Estimate

4 weeks

Decompose Bug Fixing and Stability Work

The project involves addressing several distinct bug categories and implementing systemic stability improvements. We can break this down into:

Specific Bug Fixes: Targeting registration, card creation, text formatting, image loading.
Crash Analysis & Resolution: Investigating and fixing the root causes of app crashes.
Error Handling Implementation: Adding robust error handling across key user flows.
Testing Procedure Enhancement: Implementing automated tests and improving QA processes.
Deployment & Monitoring: Rolling out fixes and monitoring stability post-release.

Impact

7/10

Revenue Proxy

Reduces monthly churn by ~0.8% absolute, potentially increases app store ratings by ~1 star, and improves overall user satisfaction.

Identify Primary Business Metrics Affected

This project directly addresses core user experience issues that impede app usability. The primary metrics impacted are:

User Satisfaction: Reducing frustration caused by bugs and crashes.
User Retention: Preventing users from churning due to a unstable or unusable app.
App Store Ratings: Improving ratings by resolving common complaints.
Conversion Rates (if applicable, e.g., for premium features): Ensuring users can complete core actions like card creation.

Estimate Scope of the Problem

The description highlights 'several users are reporting frequent bugs, crashes, and other stability issues' and specifically mentions 'white screen' and 'cards not being created'.

Let's assume:

Frequency: 'Frequent' implies this affects a noticeable portion of the user base, not just edge cases. Let's estimate 15-25% of active users encounter one of these issues regularly.
Severity: Issues like app crashes and inability to create cards are critical failures that can lead to immediate abandonment.
User Base: If the app has, for example, 100,000 Monthly Active Users (MAU), this could mean 15,000-25,000 users are experiencing significant problems.
Review Impact: Many 1-2 star reviews are likely attributed to these stability issues.

Research Baseline Metrics and Industry Benchmarks

For a free, likely ad-supported or freemium app like 'Space - Spaced Repetition', retention and user satisfaction are key.

Industry Average Churn: For mobile apps, monthly churn can range from 5% to 15%+, heavily dependent on category. Let's assume a baseline churn of 8% per month.
Impact of Stability: Studies show that poor app performance and stability are major drivers of churn. Fixing critical bugs can significantly improve retention. For apps with significant stability issues, addressing them can reduce churn by 10-30% relatively.
App Store Ratings: Apps with frequent crashes and bugs often sit below 4.0 stars. Resolving these can boost ratings by 0.5-1.5 stars.

Calculate Expected Improvement

Based on the estimates:

Churn Reduction: If 8% of users churn monthly, and stability issues are a factor for 15-25% of users, let's say these issues contribute 20% to overall churn. If we can resolve these critical issues and reduce the churn attributed to them by 50%, we achieve a relative churn reduction of 20% * 50% = 10%.
Absolute Churn Reduction: A 10% relative reduction on an 8% baseline churn means reducing churn by 0.8% absolute per month. For 100k MAU, this is saving 800 users per month.
Rating Improvement: Resolving widespread issues is likely to significantly improve App Store ratings, potentially moving from, say, 3.5 stars to 4.5 stars.
User Satisfaction: This is harder to quantify but is a primary driver for long-term engagement and virality.

Derive Impact Score

The calculated improvements are substantial:

Saving ~800 users per month (or 0.8% absolute churn reduction) is a significant impact for a free app, directly affecting user base size and potential ad revenue or conversion to premium.
The potential increase in App Store ratings from 3.5 to 4.5 stars can lead to better organic acquisition.
Addressing critical usability blockers like app crashes and inability to create cards is foundational for user retention.

This level of impact aligns with improving key business metrics meaningfully.

IMPACT SCORE = 7

Revenue Proxy

Reduces monthly churn by ~0.8% absolute, potentially increases app store ratings by ~1 star, and improves overall user satisfaction.

Identify Primary Business Metrics Affected

This project directly addresses core user experience issues that impede app usability. The primary metrics impacted are:

User Satisfaction: Reducing frustration caused by bugs and crashes.
User Retention: Preventing users from churning due to a unstable or unusable app.
App Store Ratings: Improving ratings by resolving common complaints.
Conversion Rates (if applicable, e.g., for premium features): Ensuring users can complete core actions like card creation.

Expected Profit

Financial modeling for revenue projection

Return on Investment

347%

Internal Rate of Return

24.8%

Net Present Value

$156K

Payback Period

17/mo

Related Reviews

looks promising but I have been unable to register, trying in the past 3 days, keep getting the "we are having a problem right now" message, no reply from the developer...

Marek Ryfko·4/29/2025

Very frustrating bugs. I spent 30 minutes entering sequential steps I needed to learn. Copy paste controls are almost unusable (the slider to increase the copy area fights with the apps side to side scrolling through cards.) This was forgivable. But then I came back to actually use the flash cards and it screwed up the numbering scheme. So if I had steps 16-20 on a card, it turned them all into 1-4. So every card got screwed up.

Kevin Walker·2/5/2025

1. The application has lots of bugs. For example, when I repeat cards and decide to delete one, after deleting I can see an empty card and have nothing to do except restart repeating session. Another instance is when I try to start the app I see white screen but not the app. And there is no way to deal with it. I just have to wait and reopen the app lots of times 2. Why don't you have shuffle mode? It would be more efficiently to have one for repeatition, especially when you learn bidirectionaly

Артем Дудич·8/23/2024

Great app, there is a bug when I move a card from one deck to an other. Cards are not displayed anymore when a card has been moved to another deck. I had to clear my data locally to solve the issue. Would be great if the issue can be solved. Thanks!

Alexandre Blanchet·9/4/2022

I loved the app, but now when I open it, the screen is completely white, without my decks, and I've started to have some problems to create a new deck, I've already restarted my phone and updated the app, but I don't what to do!

Mateus Bispo·2/23/2022

I am having problem while utrilizing this application it shows me en error by saying that we are having problem please try this application another time tell me what can i do no doubt this application is really good.However as i aforementioned my problem how it turns out into an error please try to figure my issue.

Fantrum Hive·10/7/2021

I keep having problem with adding cards and decks. Often shows please try again later. It is a wonderful app but I'm having this inconvenience almost everyday. Please fix it as soon as possible.

Archa A Pillai·9/9/2021

I have high hopes for this app but it seems like it has froze across both my computer and my phone. I can't get it to add new cards, change my decks, or even log back in. Not really giving a good first impression. Looks sleek and simple, which makes it all the more frustrating when but doesn't work

The Giant·7/26/2020

This app has really great potential! I love making all my flashcard decks for my studies and being able to study them individually or spanning all of them. The issues I have are: 1) Sometimes it will crash at start, or while I'm making a card. 2) Would love to be able to study my cards on the site. 3) I can only add new cards or decks on the site, not edit or delete. 4) Notifications don't seem to work. 5) Formatting and foreign language makes card previews look weird.

Nicky·5/3/2020

the app has great potential. i fell in love with it with the first sight. however i didn't know then it's actually extremely buggy, and i simply won't be able to create a flashcard. the thing is, the app goes crazy when i try to format the text. i was very disappointed, but i won't delete it and will try to use it without formatting, cus i hope one day the developers will fix all the issues and then we can enjoy one of the best flashcards app.

A Google user·3/15/2020

Very nice app, but unusable. I can place cover images for each deck, it schedules when i should view the cards for me, and it's easy to use. Unfortunately, it's unusable in my Samsung Note 5 because of bugs. In the main menu, the decks got some kind of invalid value error and I couldn't open the decks. When I started studying the cards, the back side of the cards started disappearing.

A Google user·12/28/2019

my app was great then stopped working out of nowhere! just a white page. I reinstalled and still the same. 😥 I had a nice list going. hope this can be fixed

A Google user·7/30/2019