Automated Tests

Our test suite is inching towards 90% coverage of our rather large codebase, and it just takes a long time to run all those tests.  Currently 15 minutes on my machine.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

↳ rake stats
+----------------------+-------+-------+---------+---------+-----+-------+
| Name                 | Lines |   LOC | Classes | Methods | M/C | LOC/M |
+----------------------+-------+-------+---------+---------+-----+-------+
| Controllers          |  6480 |  4465 |      72 |     465 |   6 |     7 |
| Helpers              |  1923 |  1444 |       0 |     187 |   0 |     5 |
| Models               | 10895 |  7131 |     107 |    1120 |  10 |     4 |
| Libraries            |  2527 |  1666 |      33 |     244 |   7 |     4 |
+----------------------+-------+-------+---------+---------+-----+-------+
| Total                | 21825 | 14706 |     212 |    2016 |   9 |     5 |
+----------------------+-------+-------+---------+---------+-----+-------+
  Code LOC: 14706     Test LOC: 0     Code to Test Ratio: 1:0.0

And a run of rspec:

↳ rspec spec
 3532/3532 |=================== 100 ===================>| Time: 00:16:34

Finished in 994.51 seconds
3532 examples, 0 failures

Here’s a summary of what’s going on with the codebase when running tests:

LOC: 14706
Test Count: 3432
Test Coverage: 78%
Test Runtime: 16.5 minutes

I also grabbed cloc and ran that in our API directories to help get these stats:

API LOC: 1001
API Test Count: 812
API Test Coverage: 99%
API Test Runtime: 4.2 minutes

API specs are contributing a significant amount of time to the overall runtime.  I plan on improving that.  That said, the API project is also much more completely tested than the majority of the codebase, so it will probably continue to contribute a large amount to the runtime.  I am certain I can pull it down to 3 minutes, but I’d like to get as close to a minute as possible.

I’m curious what other Rails projects look like and how we compare. If you’re reading this and you are working on a Rails project (or something similar), then please leave a comment with your:

• Lines of Code
• % Spec Coverage
• Time to run specs

—Aaron

[Webinar] Designing for Conversion: The Psychology of Persuasive Design

The man. The myth. The legend.

Some say that his mere presence lifts conversions. 

On Tuesday, May 14th at 11:00am PST, Unbounce Co-Founder and Creative Director, Oli Gardner, will expose the secrets behind the psychology of Conversion Centered Design.

In 1 hour Oli will show you how to:

1. Use design principles to increase conversions
2. Optimize your lead gen forms
3. Make your CTA’s the center of attention
4. Use social proof to leverage the psychology of ‘Me too!’

This webinar will also include a live Q&A for any additional questions you may have about Conversion Centered Design.

When: Tuesday, May 14th at 11:00 am PST / 2:00 pm EST 

Duration: 1 hour

Get Started with Conversion Centered Design » 

And hurry. Right now there’s only 126 seats left.

(Oli will know if you missed it)

Gettin’ to know Chris Cummer

A couple weeks back, we confessed our proclivity for bus banter & weirdos and introduced Corey Dilley from our marketing squad. This week, we saunter over to the dev side of the bus and give you Chris Cummer, software-dev/rock-climber extraordinaire.

Est. at Unbounce: Sept 26, 2012
Hometown: Waterloo, Ontario
Day Job: Software Developer
Connect with Chris: Linkedin/Twitter

 Give us the lowdown on what you do here at Unbounce?

I’m part of the team that builds our software. Primarily I hack on the Rails app that powers app.unbounce.com.

Career path that lead to Unbounce?

In 1995 I forced my way, with no real credentials to speak of, into a developer position at a small Toronto company called Mackerel Interactive and became hooked on software development. A couple years later and I was doing R&D with a merry band of misfits at OpenCola during the first dot-com boom and caught the start-up bug. Since then I’ve written code for a start-up in the airline industry, the travel industry, the conference industry, and now the marketing industry.

The best part of your job?

Easily, the people I work with. The amount of smart thinking that goes on at Unbounce, and the quality of conversation that surrounds it is amazing. I love it.

The main thing you geek out over?

I don’t know that it’s the main thing (Lego is pretty awesome), but cognitive neuropsychology, specifically neuroplasticity fascinates me to no end. Can’t read enough about it. Alas, I really don’t know anything beyond a superficial layman’s understanding so don’t ask me any hard questions.

Activities outside of your day job?

Snowboarding, hiking, rock climbing, eating, sleeping. In Vancouver we’re lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world; I try to take advantage of that as much as possible and not take it for granted.

Favorite places in Vancouver?

Even after eight years here my knowledge of Vancouver proper is really crap. The Cascade Room on Main is my favorite place to drink; La Buca on Macdonald my favorite place to eat; anywhere on the Howe Sound Crest Trail my favorite place to be.

Quick: coffee with one person living or dead, who would it be?

James Burke, if only to say thank you. Connections changed my life.

Time travel: go into the past or future, and what’s one thing you would do?

I’ve been working on forward time-travel for quite awhile now and feel like I have a pretty good handle on it. I’m not very fast yet, only about 1 sec/sec, but I have a 100% success rate so far so I’m going to keep working on that.

Best trip you’ve ever taken?

Third step from the bottom, main staircase of the Fairmont in Whistler. The impact was easy, the carpet was soft, and very few people were around to witness it. I’ll always remember it fondly.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you choose?

Indiana Jones.

Something you would never do?  

I never speak in absolutes.

Customer Spotlight: Inside HootSuite with Daina Lightfoot

We work with some seriously badass customers who work for some seriously awesome organizations. Sure we know who we work with – but this is a chance for you to get to know other like-minded individuals and companies. So join us as we take a look into our customer’s creative & strategic methodology and philosophy, as well as discuss their favorite tools, blogs and books.

It only makes sense we started with the Owls over at Vancouver-based, HootSuite, not only because they are in our hood, not only because they are power-users and have been since 2011 – but because they are doing awesome things in the social space and getting an insider’s view is bound to be interesting and inspiring. So meet Daina Lightfoot, Designer at HootSuite.

So Daina, what do you do at HootSuite?

I’m one-quarter of HootSuite’s marketing design team. We work on anything from documents to infographics to the company website. I tend to focus more on web design and swag, but we all share the workload when needed.

How does the creative process work at HootSuite?

It all depends on the size of the project and the time we have available to complete it. But since we like to live life in the fast lane at HootSuite, quick concepts often become full-fledged pieces in a matter of hours or days. In general my coworkers and I are really open to feedback and collaborating within our team. We sit in a pod together and are always asking questions and giving each other feedback. Everything is this reviewed by our art director before being sent out.

When it comes to testing pages and ads, we work closely with our Pro Growth team led by Craig Ryomoto. (The Pro Growth team manages customer acquisition, conversion optimization, analytics, and revenue for HootSuite’s Pro Business division.) Once they’ve analyzed the data, they meet with our Art Director who lets us know how campaigns are doing so we can use that knowledge towards better results in our next campaign.  

Daina with a mural she painted in a boardroom at HootSuite HQ 

What is your work setup like? What equipment do you use? What are the most essential elements to your workspace?

I’m one of the rare HootSuite folks to have a desktop computer.  My setup is an iMac (sitting on design books) with an external Samsung monitor that sits on an empty wine box.  A clean desk is a must for me, so if I don’t need it constantly it’s out of sight.

Daina at her desk working next to Shawn and Jason.

Items found on Daina’s desk

In what environment are you most productive?

The busier the work environment the better. As long as I can drown out the noise (if needed) with my headphones I’m a happy camper. I couldn’t imagine ever sitting in a cubicle or having to dress up to go to the office.

What do you listen to?

Right now I’m addicted to the new Macklemore album. Also, a bunch of people at the office are on Rdio, so I like to follow them and see what everyone else is listening to.  

Sketching in the HootSuite lunch room with Link.

What are some of your favorite tools & apps that help you and why they are important?

Adium:  At HootSuite, we use Gtalk to communicate a lot. So I like Adium because it’s puts my chats into a box in the corner of my screen. Without it, I’d have to go and check Gmail every 5 minutes to see if anyone is pinging me. Plus I can connect it to MSN so my mom can message me there instead of texting me. Yeah, my mom is pretty tech-savvy.

Hootlet: This is a Chrome and Firefox extension that automatically takes content you want to share from a webpage and pops it into a message, ready to go. It’s great for sharing design articles that I find online, plus I can autoschedule them for later since I usually end up surfing the web late at night.

Where do you look for inspiration?

I tend to find inspiration everywhere.  To be more specific though, I like to check these blog/sites on a regular basis:

• DESIGNLOVEFEST
• Dribbble
• Design Instruct
• Pugly Pixel
• Abduzeedo
• Swiss Miss
• The Design Blog

HootSuite also has a tool called HootSuite Conversations that the whole company uses.  It’s an internal social network, where we can talk and share ideas and updates all day long…at work. The design team has our own separate group in Conversations, that we use to share design our team-specific resources with each other there. This post on How Habits Can Impact User Behavior is a good example of something that was recently shared.

What about a favorite book?

I don’t know if it necessarily inspired me design-wise, but I am a huge Harry Potter fan. Lucky for me I’m not alone in that three-quarters of the marketing design team is super stoked on the series. #teambonding

How do you & your team use Unbounce and where do you come along in the creative process? 

We use Unbounce regularly to test conversions on new pages/campaigns that are being implemented as well as older pages where we feel the conversion rate could be better.  Whether it’s the color of a CTA or where content is placed, it’s proving to be an easy tool for me to build in so our Pro team can do the tracking and make minor edits on their own.  

Usually a department will create a plan to test content on one of the pages they own, which will then get passed on to me to design and implement.  From there I will get our Pro team involved to do the tracking, and the data received will be forwarded onto the initial team and myself.

The latest test we ran was to just compare the wording on pricing on learn.hootsuite.com. This is the second variant we were testing:

How does Unbounce help you in the design process?

I love that I am able to build out pages, share them with other teams so that they can edit them in an appropriate way.  I’m able to provide them with a bunch of on brand assets, so if they want to do simple testing on their own, they are able to without damaging the brand. Plus I can always go back and check on the edits they have been making and quickly update if needed.

About Daina 
Daina is a Designer at HootSuite. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow her on Twitter.

About HootSuite
HootSuite is a social media management system for businesses and organizations to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social channels

-Stefanie Grieser
Marketing Co-ordinator 

[Webinar Recap] Everything You Need to Know to Start A/B Testing

“Relying on guesswork and gut feeling is a dangerous business strategy.”

This past Tuesday, Michael Aagaard, conversion expert & split test junkie shared testing tips and best practice. His enthusiasm and passion about testing was evident as he shared his knowledge with an engaged online marketing audience teaching them how they can improve their conversions by A/B Testing. 

With discussions on theory, real-life case studies, and a chock-full list of simple tips that make a serious impact, the webinar was full of unique advice and actionable takeaways. 

Learn why:

• Guesswork and gut feeling is a dangerous business strategy
• The full process of A/B testing and optimization is easier than you think
• Some of the highest impact optimizations involve the simplest tests

Didn’t make the webinar? Ya, you missed out. But lucky for you, we have a recording. Get it here.

Only want the slides? Ya, we have that too. Get them here.

Small changes can make a big impact. Let Michael show you how.

- Jeffrey Bunn
Customer Success Coach

Gettin’ to know Corey Dilley aka. ChiefChinchilla

Est. at Unbounce: February 25, 2013
Hometown: Port Stanley, Ontario
Title: Co-marketing and Campaign Strategist
Connect with me on: twitter/linkedin

Hey Corey, so give us the lowdown on what you do here at Unbounce:

I guide marketers who want to set up landing pages without IT to our sign-up process. All day, every day.

Your career path that lead to this gig at Unbounce?

I dabbled in digital advertising, then I ran an iPhone App that directs people to street food trucks. That was a tasty year!

How did you stumble into this world of tech and startups?

I was getting really afraid of specializing in something so much that I wouldn’t be able to interact with normal people anymore. After broadening my skill set, I realized my problem is just that I’m awkward.

The best part of your job?

When Georgiana forces me to think way harder about how we could say things more effectively. For real.

Number one thing you geek out over?

Data and video games. Especially when video games give you data. I want to know EXACTLY how much worse I am than everyone else at League of Legends (username: ChiefChinchilla). Also, 90’s underground hip hop. If you don’t know, now you know neighbour.

Activities outside of your day job?

Dodgeball (Captain of Team Best Friends), walking my dog, Baron Von Dilley, in the woods with my wife, and going snowboarding in Whistler. Oh god… I’m a Vancouverite now.

Favourite hidden gem in Vancouver?

The Narrow. I always have a great time there.

Time travel: go into the past or future, and what’s one thing you would do?

The past. I don’t know why everyone always reveals the secret that they’re from the future. If you don’t tell anyone, they’ll just think you’re a genius. I’d probably get a nobel peace prize or invent the spoon.

Biggest fear?

Right, like I’ll tell the internet that. (editor’s note: fair)

Favourite apps right now?

I’m addicted to the new Podcasts app that came with iOS 6. On a related note, I also had to download Onavo Count, which monitors my data usage, so I don’t go 7 gigs over ever again.

End of the world: zombie apocalypse, natural disaster, economic meltdown, asteroid or human virus?

It’s gotta be Skynet… I feel like computers are going to become self-aware within the next 20 years or so and not even Schwarzenegger will be able to help us.

What has Corey been working on lately? 
Co-marketing & Partnerships. Check it out!

[Webinar] Everything You Need to Know to Start A/B Testing

The webinar will also include a live Q&A for any additional questions you might have about conversion rate optimization.

When: Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 at 11:00 AM PST / 2:00 PM ET (GMT -7:00)

Duration: 1 hour

Get Started A/B Testing »