How do you test your responsive web design?

Browser tools are great for quickly testing responsive layouts as a first step before testing on target devices. This allows for rapid detection of issues and is certainly not a gold standard without employing step two which is viewing on the target device.

Additionally to the browser tools remember that your website builders also often allow you to preview different sizes right in the editor. Especially no-code development platforms have pretty wide tools.

Responsive web design is a crucial approach in modern web development that ensures websites adapt and provide optimal user experiences across various devices and screen sizes. A responsive website provides a consistent and user-friendly experience across all devices. It ensures that your content is easily readable, images are properly displayed, and navigation remains intuitive, regardless of whether a user is accessing your site on a desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. This leads to higher user satisfaction and engagement.

To test your responsive web design, use browser developer tools to simulate various screen sizes and devices. Test on real devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktops, to ensure accuracy. Utilize online tools like BrowserStack or Responsinator to check compatibility across different browsers and operating systems. Conduct user testing to gather feedback on the design’s usability and functionality on various devices. Finally, validate your CSS and HTML to ensure there are no code issues affecting responsiveness.

Personally, I prefer using tools like Hotjar because it has a recording feature, where you can see in a video format, how the user interacts with your website in different window sizes.

This is also a way out, especially if you have no opportunity to test your website live in the targeted device. But the most problem of responsiveness simulators - they don't alow you to test the interaction. You might see how your design responds to the screen size change. But you will not be able to find bugs related to interactions.

It would be simple if everyone had the same set of devices. However, that's not the real world. Ideally, it would help designers to plan not only for the client in question but users who have not yet adapted to a mobile-only lifestyle (yes that still exists). As a designer, it's almost impossible (and impractical) to account for every single device in existence. At least get average sizing for each of the most popular platforms and plan around them.

Use GTmatrix for website performance. Also some online tools help to check website such as cross-browser testing, screenshot capture, live reload, and remote debugging.

It is also useful to test on real devices when it comes to mobile especially because you can better feel if your button placement and touch areas are set properly. Testing the experience while using your fingers instead of a mouse yields more accurate simulation of what the user will experience.

In a perfect world, you should test your website on all devices. If you have that opportunity, don't limit yourself to only mobile devices, but try to test tablets as well. And don't forget to test both vertical and horizontal orientation. You might be surprized with how your design just crushes when you simply turn the phone.

GTMatrix is my go-to tool to analyze the performance and responsiveness of any web application. This tool also suggests improvements or ways to optimize and improve the performance of any website.

This will be really helpful, but keep in mind this way is not absolute. The behavior of your website visitors is not only based on how good is the layout performance. Remember to consider who's your target audience and what is the purpose of your website. Using analytics for testing website responsiveness is just an additional tool.

Even simply asking your best friend to test the website might open a Pandora box. Testing the website all by yourself is pretty limited. You already know how it has to work and what you need to look for. And as a developer you have your own biases and your unconsciousness will look to the proof that everything looks well. Get someone's other perspective.