In today's world, web applications play an important role in acquiring customers, and that is why a growing number of companies are migrating their traditional front and back office applications from desktops to mobile or web-based interfaces. In order to provide great end-user experience, apps have to work as expected.
Customers expect an app to work across multiple browsers, versions, operating systems and devices. In recent studies, Sauce Labs identified more than 2,000 devices and over 800 browser-OS combinations, so compatibility and user experience (UX) testing for web applications is important now more than ever.
Compatibility testing is validating the ability of a software to perform in all supported environments and platforms. Compatibility testing is often paired with UX testing.
UX testing ensures that the user experience is not affected on different platforms. For example, if Facebook is a compatible application, then its web and mobile apps should work properly in all browsers, devices and operating systems without any UX issues.
Below are different types of software testing that experts recommend your team focus on to ensure your application's consistency on all supported platforms:
- Mobile Testing: A recent study states that mobile traffic has increased by 222% in the last 5 years. This illustrates the importance of mobile testing. Testing is performed to check that the mobile app is compatible on different mobile devices, operating systems and browsers.
- Browser Testing: Your QA team needs to cover different browsers such as Google Chrome, Edge and Firefox. This is also known as cross-browser testing. Testers should take care of functional consistency, UI and accessibility testing.
- Network Testing: Your testers will need to test the application on different networks such as WiFi, 5G, 4G and 3G to make sure that your app works with different network strengths.
- Operating Systems Testing: Testers can perform testing on different operating systems such as Linux, Windows and macOS, in order to check its compatibility and usability. There are various operating systems and versions – the more operating systems that are covered during testing, the better.
- Hardware Testing: Hardware testing checks the application’s compatibility with different hardware configurations. This also covers devices such as USB, printers, scanners and Bluetooth.
7 Objectives of UX Testing
Your app’s usability and look needs to satisfy your users. Below are specific areas where testers need to focus:
- Consistency in content formatting
- Color, images and icons used are aesthetically appealing
- Elements do not overlap and are not distorted
- Navigation to reach the desired screen exists
- Links are not broken
- Users can easily locate correct data
- Buttons and text boxes should be labeled correctly
In order to successfully complete compatibility and user experience testing, there are four steps stakeholders need to take.
- Create a well-defined test plan
- Identify the right testers based on the skill sets needed
- Test on real or virtual environments (This is determined by budget and product need)
- Identify whether to use cloud infrastructure or an in-house lab
Testing for compatibility and UX is highly important when there is a plethora of devices, browsers and OS platforms saturating the market. This ensures a rich user experience and high possibility of product success. If you would like to learn more about optimizing your product’s quality, speak with one of QASource’s experienced QA providers today.
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