Mobile Web Testing Myths You Should Not Believe

The Mobile web development Industry is one of the most rapidly growing industries of the current generation. A significant factor for the growth of this industry is the Rapid popularity of mobile devices.  For instance, a recent survey suggests that more than 50% of the total internet traffic is dominated by mobile users.  Therefore, the developers must make the applications and websites compatible with mobile use. This step will ensure that they can hold their stand in this competitive industry.

To maintain user satisfaction, the developers must ensure that they provide a stable web application with an interactive User experience. The web testing process helps to accomplish these goals for any company. Mobile web testing also helps the company to receive high ratings for its applications.  However, a software tester can be easily misled by various misconceptions regarding mobile web testing. 

So, in this article, we are going to bust the common myths regarding mobile app testing. The developers must keep themselves free from all these myths to improve their testing capabilities. 

Importance of Mobile Websites

During the early years of the internet, people only used their desktops and laptops to access the internet. With the advancement of Technology, portability has become a vital factor in the lives of every human being. People want to use all the essential services while they are on the go. This thirst for portability has given rise to smartphones that can access almost every daily essential.

So, the web development companies have to adapt themselves to this new creation. This is because a company cannot afford to alienate any segment of the industry in this competitive market due to device incompatibility.

A web development company can lose a huge portion of the market if they failed to deliver a stable end-user experience on mobile web applications. Eliminating the myths from the minds of software developers plays a vital role in this goal. Now let us take a look at some of the common myths regarding mobile web testing: 

Common Mobile Web Testing Myths You Should Never Believe as A Tester

1.     Testing Should Be Always Performed After Completing the Development Process

During the early years of software development, all testing processes were conducted after completing the development of the web application. However, with time developers began to realize that it is a time-consuming process. So, this practice of performing all the tests after completing the development process began to be eliminated from the web Development Industry. However, certain developers still didn’t get rid of this age-old custom and practice it even to this date.

These developers need to realize that this practice increases both the time and expenses of the web development project. Integrating the development phase with the testing phase increases the efficiency of the developers. This process also helps to improve the quality of the mobile web Application. Various development platforms help to increase the coordination between web developers and testers. So, developers must integrate these practices into their testing workflow. 

2.     It is Enough to Run the Test in a Single Mobile Type

Many mobile web testers carry a generalized thought pattern about the testing coverage. They believe the proper functioning of a web application on a single mobile device automatically guarantees its stable performance on others as well. This is a completely wrong Idea considering the variety of mobile devices. Every mobile has its unique set of specifications, screen size, and display resolution. The functioning of the application will also vary depending on these factors.

Experts believe that developers should consider not their devices as the benchmark for the testing standards. This is because a recent survey has proved that over 80% of mobile users have devices at least more than a year old. The developers must perform thorough research about the userbase before taking any decision. This data will also help them to get an idea about the preferences of their audience. 

3.     Emulator Testing has the Same Effectiveness as Device Testing

As we discussed earlier, every company can’t mention a physical device testing lab.  This is because it is a time-consuming and highly expensive process. Therefore, small start-up companies have to rely on emulator testing for ensuring the functionality of the mobile web applications. However, this doesn’t mean that emulator testing has the same effects as real device testing. 

Certain factors are almost impossible for an emulator to imitate. For instance, an emulator cannot simulate how the application will react to human interaction. Emulators will also fail to provide constructive data about the visual positioning of all the elements on a web application. This data is highly essential to ensure that the website retains its UI irrespective of the device or browser combination.

Therefore, it becomes almost mandatory for the developers to perform physical device testing on web applications. Using online cloud services is the easiest alternative to maintaining a physical device lab. 

4.     You Can Always Replace Manual Testing with Automation Testing

During the conventional times, the standard practice was to use manual testing to perform all the testing processes in the web development life cycle. However, it was a time-consuming and expensive process to conduct all the repetitive processes manually. Slowly automation testing began to take its stand in the web Development Industry. Automation Testing uses automated test scripts to conduct all the redundant processes in the web development life cycle. 

The developers can reuse a massive portion of the test scripts in various other projects. Due to its immense capabilities, many developers began to believe that Automation Testing can replace manual testing in every segment. In reality, it is almost impossible to replace manual testing in certain areas. For instance, a computer program can never imitate human interaction. Automation Testing also cannot perform visual compatibility testing on web applications.  Therefore, the companies will require a watchful human eye to conduct this process. 

5.     The Ultimate Measure of App Quality is Code Coverage

Code Coverage has a very important role in ensuring the quality of the mobile application. It is so important that many developers believe that it is often the ultimate criteria to determine the app quality. In reality, it is not more important than testing other areas which include the security and the performance of the application. The workflow of the application also plays a major role in the stability of the framework.

In simple terms, if all the key features of a web application fail, the code coverage will not affect saving the web app. So, the developers must concentrate their focus on ensuring the functioning of the vital aspects. It is a good idea to perform periodic testing on certain aspects like security and stability. The data storage function of e-commerce websites also plays a vital role in implementing user data security. 

6.     Cloud Testing Isn’t Essential in the Present Generation

Cloud testing is one of the most advanced contributions in the field of software testing. The testers can utilize this technology to test their application and website from anywhere in the world. Thus, they can save the hassle and expenses of maintaining a physical device testing lab. Moreover, cloud testing allows testing the application on all the latest devices that have just been released to the market.

However, many companies have wrongly believed that this thing is just a luxury that doesn’t significantly affect testing efficiency.  In reality, cloud testing massively helps to elevate the performance of any software tester. Many experts believe that cloud testing will play a vital role in the growth of any company. So, Web development companies should integrate it into the development environment as soon as possible. 

There are various platforms and tools like Lt Browser for performing cloud testing. These tools also help the developers to perform cloud-based cross-browser testing on their applications. This means they can check the compatibility of their app on thousands of browsers and browser versions at the same time.  

7.     Tool Choice Isn’t a Significant Process

A tester can’t conduct the entire testing process all by himself. He will need the assistance of various tools and platforms to conduct this process fluently. Now, the tool choosing process is one of the most controversial actions performed by any software tester. Many software developers have the misconception that they can randomly choose a mobile web testing tool or platform. However, this is one of the primary reasons for the downfall of any company or web development project.

This is because every testing tool has a set of advantages and disadvantages. So, the developers must choose the proper tool to utilize the full potential of the development environment. Developers should also consider the business ideas and the requirements of the company to make a perfect choice. Let us consider the example of LT Browser to understand the importance of mobile web testing tools:

LT browser is a tool to test the responsiveness of mobile websites on multiple devices at the same time. Using this tool, the developers can test the functioning of the web application on more than 25 devices at the same time. Moreover, the developers can create custom devices according to the project requirements. LT browser also helps the testers to perform automated visual testing on the web application.

This means that the developers can use this tool to ensure that all the web elements maintain the positioning irrespective of device or browser combination. LT Browser can also test the functioning of all locally hosted mobile web applications.

Moreover, the software testers can use this tool to maintain an activity log for the development project. Lastly, the LT browser extension is available for free in the Google Chrome extension Store. This extension verifies the functioning of the web application from the browser itself.

The Conclusive Views

So, we can conclude that mobile web testing is one of the essential parts of modern web development standards. Considering the mobile domination in the present technological generation, developers must consider this seriously for expanding their business. The companies should implement all practices to utilize the full potential of the web developers and testers. A stable and attractive mobile website helps to increase user retention and reduces the bounce rates for your company.

So, it is highly essential to eliminate all forms of myths from the minds of app developers.  In a worst-case scenario, these myths can contribute to the downfall of the entire company. Lastly, we would like to recommend the software developers properly choose the tools and platforms for their development project. The compatibility of the tools will play a vital role in improving the development environment for the company.