Mobile website testing is testing web applications or websites across multiple mobile browsers. It essentially helps verify the appearance and performance of a web application across various mobile browsers such as Opera, Chrome, Safari, etc.
The website should incorporate a mobile-responsive design to ensure optimal viewing and functionality across various devices. This feature allows target customers to conveniently access the products or services on handheld devices. Mobile-first design should be used for mobile website testing to provide a flawless web experience to the target audience.
Delivering the finest experience on all available mobile devices becomes a daunting task. Various viewport sizes and screen resolutions add another layer of intricacy to mobile website testing.
This article will discuss the best practices for testing mobile websites on different devices.
What Is Mobile Website Testing?
Mobile website testing is a type of testing conducted to verify the consistent performance of websites or web applications across different browsers and screen resolutions. This testing is also known as mobile web responsiveness testing.
According to Adobe Retail Shopping Insights (2020), over 42% of consumers conducted their holiday shopping through smartphones. Notably, despite the prevalence of remote work, Adobe estimated that the average expenditure on smartphones amounted to approximately $28 billion in the United States alone.
The volume of individuals accessing content through smartphones in India has significantly increased. Statcounter states that mobile users account for 76.98%, with 22.48% of desktop users. This clarifies why many have embraced the mobile-first approach when designing mobile-responsive user experiences.
With the increasing number of smartphone users, it is imperative to acknowledge that a larger audience will seek access to websites through mobile devices. Therefore, ensuring optimal quality and usability of websites on mobile platforms and conducting thorough testing are paramount.
Reasons for Mobile Usability Testing
Website testing for mobile compatibility and responsiveness directs a positive customer experience. It helps to gain an upper edge over the competition when mobile website testing is integral to the product development roadmap.
Below are a few reasons for mobile usability testing of the web product:
Mobile-First Indexing
Prominent search engines such as Google prioritize mobile-responsive websites. Failing to ensure mobile compatibility for your web product may significantly reduce its visibility in search results.
Mobile website testing aids in giving customers flawless performance on popular screen resolutions. Furthermore, adopting a mobile-first approach can significantly enhance your online visibility, leading to increased lead generation through improved search engine rankings.
Exceptional User Experience
A positive user experience is essential for onboarding and retaining new users. This can be achieved through comprehensive mobile website testing on devices commonly utilized by your target customer demographic.
Speed and Accuracy
Personalization and convenience are the predominant factors driving consumer preference for mobile phones over desktops/laptops. The testing team tests the site on different mobile screen resolutions from various perspectives. This helps create a responsive web experience for the intended audience.
Mobile Device Compatibility
Prioritizing mobile website testing does not necessitate conducting tests on all categories of mobile phones in the market. Utilizing market segmentation data can assist your team in focusing on a specific category of smartphones.
The subsequent stage involves conducting tests on the website to assess its performance and user experience on the designated devices. Addressing any issues identified during this testing phase is crucial for optimizing the mobile website and ensuring a mobile-first web experience.
Mobile website testing allows you to deliver an excellent end-user experience across various mobile devices. This is a crucial element in attracting and retaining customers.
Benefits of Mobile Website Testing
Mobile website testing endows development teams with numerous benefits, such as:
Operating System Compatibility: Tests on mobile operating systems like iOS and Android, ensuring a glitch-free experience across various devices.
Browser Compatibility: It confirms the website works seamlessly on various mobile browsers like Safari, Chrome, and Samsung Internet.
User-Friendly Design: Mobile optimization improves user-friendliness and is essential for retaining visitors and increasing conversion rates.
Enhanced Visibility: Well-tested mobile websites have more potential to attract and retain users, increasing overall visibility.
SEO Advantage: Google prefers mobile-friendly sites, leading to higher rankings.
Mobile website testing expedites website responsiveness, delivering enriched user experiences on numerous devices.
Best Practices for Testing Mobile Websites on Different Devices
It is essential to avoid a comprehensive approach to mobile website testing to prevent potential bottlenecks in the testing process. The initial step should involve prioritizing product features and mobile devices for testing to manage the process effectively.
Best practices for testing mobile websites on different devices:
Mobile Friendliness Testing
The Mobile-friendly test furnished by Google is a valuable tool for evaluating the mobile responsiveness of your website. Besides, you gain a comprehensive site-wide mobile usability report that delivers insights into your site’s Click Rate, mobile usability improvements, and more.
Validation of HTML and CSS Code
Begin by thoroughly validating the website (or web application) code to identify and eliminate any potential HTML and CSS errors. Utilizing open-source tools such as the W3C mobileOK Checker is advised for this purpose, rather than relying on a manual HTML and CSS code validation process.
The Chrome Dev Tools are valuable for analyzing and resolving issues with a website’s HTML and CSS code. Additionally, it provides the functionality to conduct mobile website testing under simulated network constraints, reflecting the current landscape of increased mobile internet usage.
Device Emulators and Real Devices
Establishing a device farm can be a costly and non-scalable solution. Emulators serve as adequate tools for conducting user interface testing. Leveraging device emulators is beneficial for testing scenarios where key aspects such as the website’s UI, UX, and aesthetic elements are the primary focus.
Real devices are recommended for performance testing. Cloud-based device testing offers an optimal solution for effectively scaling up the number of devices and operating systems available for testing. Conducting tests on cloud-based devices is the optimal choice for running evaluations on the real devices utilized by your target audience.
Automated tests can be utilized to assess your website’s performance and user interface on a large scale, employing real devices that are not under your ownership or maintenance. By executing tests concurrently on various browsers, platforms, and authentic mobile devices, the entire process of mobile website testing can be significantly accelerated.
Utilizing real devices and mobile emulators, discover issues related to performance, user interface, user experience, and critical facets of the mobile website.
Responsive Web Testing
For individuals seeking a complementary tool to facilitate responsive testing of their website or web application, Responsinator is a recommended option. Using Responsinator, users can conduct mobile website testing across various screen resolutions. This tool is particularly valuable for evaluating the layout of a mobile website, an essential aspect of its design and functionality.
A browser tool like Responsinator lets users adjust the website to fit specific device viewports. However, it is primarily suitable for conducting fundamental sanity tests. In addition to Responsinator, numerous other tools are available that can aid in testing responsive web design.
Automation Testing
After establishing the testing outline and priorities, the next crucial step is selecting the optimal approach for conducting testing on a large scale. Test automation is most suitable for tests with a foreseeable outcome, as they can be automated utilizing a testing framework. However, a drawback of opting for a testing framework is the inability to capitalize on the expertise of the black-box testing team.
Test automation tools, such as Appium, Selenium, Espresso, XCUITest, Selendroid, and Robotium, offer superior capabilities for enhancing users’ mobile website experience. These tools give an amazing opportunity to project participants, such as QA Managers, QA Engineers, Program Managers, and Product Managers, who play a very active role in mobile website testing.
Automated tests are written using clear and straightforward language, leading to diminished test upkeep and a decrease in unreliable test results. Instead of executing tests on an in-house infrastructure that is less scalable and requires high maintenance, automation tests can be run on cloud tools like LambdaTest, which are scalable, secure, and require minimal maintenance.
LambdaTest is a comprehensive test orchestration and execution platform that leverages artificial intelligence to facilitate the seamless and efficient running of manual and automated tests on a large scale. With a focus on providing a versatile testing environment, LambdaTest empowers users to conduct real-time and automated testing across an extensive array of environments, encompassing over 3000 configurations, including browsers and real mobile devices.
Pay Attention to Loading Speed
Given the growing dependence on smartphones for web browsing, users now anticipate websites to load promptly and smoothly. Prolonged loading durations may result in user frustration and a significant bounce rate, which can detrimentally affect user experience and possibly result in users leaving your site. To enhance loading speed, it is imperative to optimize images, reduce file sizes, employ caching methodologies, and integrate responsive design strategies.
Test on Various Internet Speeds
To achieve optimal performance and enhance user experience, conduct thorough testing of mobile websites across internet speeds. Given that website visitors may access the platform through diverse internet connections, such as high-speed Wi-Fi or slower mobile data, it is imperative to ensure compatibility and functionality across these conditions.
Through the execution of internet speed tests, it is possible to identify potential challenges that might be encountered by individuals with slower connections, including prolonged loading times or restricted access to specific features. This testing process facilitates optimizing your website’s performance under diverse network conditions, ensuring its continued functionality and user satisfaction for all visitors, irrespective of internet speed.
Use a Cross-Platform Testing Tool
For comprehensive and efficient testing of mobile websites across multiple devices, it is strongly advised to employ a cross-platform testing tool. Such a tool enables developers and testers to replicate website behavior on different devices and operating systems without the necessity of physical devices. This approach conserves time and resources and ensures extensive testing coverage across diverse platforms.
By leveraging a cross-platform testing tool, businesses can efficiently identify and address compatibility issues, performance glitches, and layout inconsistencies that may occur when users access their mobile websites on various devices. These tools facilitate bug identification and resolution, offer valuable insights and analytics to enable data-driven decisions and enhance the mobile website for optimal user experience across multiple devices.
Conclusion
Mobile devices have now become an essential part of our daily lives. For organizations, having a functional, mobile-friendly website with a seamless user experience is extremely important. This article has demonstrated a few essential elements of mobile website testing, its importance, and an ideal method to help you achieve quality output. Whether you are a developer or a tester, knowing mobile website testing, methods, and tools saves time and endeavor. It emphasizes the user experience through the suited approach and provides the best outcomes. In the digital era, technology is continuously growing, making mobile website testing an essential part of website development and can aid in ensuring the website experience fulfills the user’s requirements.
