Over the past few years, there is a tremendous increase in mobile users, which makes it important for enterprises to focus on their mobile apps. According to Google and IBM, more than half of the global traffic uses mobile devices to make their transactions. In the U.S. alone, 4 out of 10 purchases now involve multiple devices and top businesses including retail, banking, and finance, etc. are using responsive testing services to deliver a website user experience across different platforms including smartphones, tablets, and desktops. However, developing responsive websites is a challenging process with potential issues.
Let’s have a look at three common mistakes testers should avoid during responsive web design:
All Mobile Devices are not the Same Size
Developers define specific breakpoints (the areas where a website is not displaying information correctly on certain screen sizes) and base their layouts on these breakpoints. There are different layouts for phones and tablets. A responsive web design (RWD) layout for iPhones is different, so the same RWD for the website will not be the same, as the text and images may be displayed incorrectly.
When developers design a responsive website for a smartphone, they should consider the smallest screen size in a size range. If they pick breakpoints between a width of 250px and 450px, they sure test on the smaller end of the range. This is critical to get cut off or misaligned on smaller screens. Small devices tend to be older, but it is important to address them during RWD.
Testing is not Performed on Real Mobile Devices
As discussed earlier, mobile devices come in various screen sizes and resolutions, a single RWD won’t work for all devices. Due to an ever-changing user condition like switching networks, phone call interruptions, and heavy user load can also affect how a website appears on the screen.
Having access to real mobile devices is extremely important for testing. When carrying out responsive testing services, testers prefer emulators, but they do not replicate the real user experience of a real smartphone or laptop. They lack the hardware modifications that affect the viewport size, which means the visual correctness of the site. Chances are high that a website may appear fine on an emulator, but it may go over breakpoints and generate a different layout.
Rigorous Functional Testing
Functional tests are performed to confirm that the website features work according to the code. But these tests do not validate that the buttons and aligned correctly on the page, across various browsers and devices.
If testers run a test to click on different links and buttons on a specific page, the test would say everything works, but in reality, the buttons on the page are misaligned. Testers need to confirm the website appears correctly on all browsers and devices with visual testing that validates all aspects of a website including its font, color, text, position (from portrait to landscape mode), etc. Avoiding the above common mistakes can help in getting the right RWD for a website. Responsive software testing companies are designed to help businesses get the right design for their business websites.
Author Bio:
Ray Parker is an entrepreneur and tech enthusiast who loves to incorporate new technologies to get more efficient outcomes. When he’s not marketing his latest venture, he keeps himself busy in writing technical articles to educate peers and professionals.
