Cross-Browser Testing Is an Essential Component of Testing Strategy

Why Should We Care

Cross-browser testing is extremely essential for the web application to ensure that they are acceptable by the widest range of the web browsers used globally. This helps in testing the varied features, functionality and attributes of the websites or applications across different web browser to offer a uniform user experience. It becomes a challenge for the testing team to ensure that website or application remains user-friendly regardless of the browser, screen size or device.

Each and every browser has their own set of logic and how they choose to implement certain W3C standards. Chrome renders a web page differently than Safari or Internet explorer for instance. This is because they are running on different layout or rendering engines behind the scenes. This becomes really critical to test for applications which is client facing – where a user would visit multiple times since it is impossible to control what browsers/platforms/versions the end-user is going to use. As a simple rule of thumb if the product is non-intranet and is designed to support multiple browsers and their versions from different devices then performing cross browser testing should be part of the strategy.

What to Test

Testing team should make a list of things to test before initiating the cross-browser testing exercise. Apart from the standard protocols to follow while testing the cross-browser compatibility of the website or application, a tester should also have its own website centric features to focus upon. Some of the things to test during the cross-browser testing include basic functionality of the website or application followed by the graphical user interface and finally, the overall performance of the website or application. A due focus should be given towards how the website responds to certain actions baked into it across different browsers. Having a list will help in improving the overall user experience of the website or application across the browsers to a great extent. 

Its also important to know the target audience- this helps in choosing the right kind of combinations for browsers you want to test your application against . If you have a budget or resource constraint of any kind then you would be able to test against 2-3 browsers at maximum. Hence it become important to know where your target audience resides (cities, countries, continents) and the browser usage trends etc. Eg., If your users are based out in USA, then the top 3 desktop browsers (https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/desktop/united-states-of-america) would be Chrome, Safari and Edge but if your users are from China the top 3 desktop browsers are Chrome, QQ Browser and Sogu Explorer(https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/desktop/china). This simple metric can change the entire equation and hence its important to strategize with the team against different combinations of browsers ,devices, operating systems against whom the application has to be tested.

 Don’t forget the ‘tablets’

There was a time when tablets were in trend and then the trend phased out, but it left about just 4% of user-base with tablets globally. It might deter the developers from testing websites on tablets devices, but sadly, that’s a wrong approach. Within the United States, as many as 8% of internet users make use of a tablet for daily online activities, which simply translates into a considerable number of potential customers. Therefore, spend some time checking, tweaking and optimizing your website to run without losing any attributes across tablets of varying sizes and resolutions. It has also be noted that the site which has been greatly optimized for all kind of screen size and resolutions usually get highly favored by the search engines.

 Make use of the right tool for testing

When it comes to testing, make sure that you make use of the best tools at your disposal. For cross-browser testing, there is a huge number of testing tools to choose from and selecting the right one which does justice to your website and enterprise as a whole is a challenging task. In this highly competing market, it has become essential for the enterprise and website owners to ensure that their website is cross-browser as well as cross-platform compatible. This can only be achieved by taking the right tools to infuse the cross-browser optimization into the website by fulfilling its requirements. 

 When is the right time to start the cross-browser testing? 

The job here is to ensure that the user gets the superior quality of website regardless of the device & browser used by the user. The best time to initiate the cross-browser testing is when you just have a single website page ready. Now focus on testing that very page on each and every web browser. This will help you in finding the gaps, issues and blunders within the code from the early stage of the website development. Get rid of issues and fix bugs at this stage for the single web page and simply replicate the efforts for rest of pages for quick and cost-effective testing. 

The worst time to check the cross-browser functionality of the web-based application is after its release; when you get criticized for the lack of foresight both by the users and critics. 

 Test before going live is a must

 Just before you are about to launch the website, take your time and check how your website performs across the major web browsers. Please keep in mind that the cross-browser testing takes place on the local server prior to the launch. This will certainly help you in offering a better user experience to the target audience by getting rid of unwanted issues before going live.

 Cross-browser testing helps in building a good impression of the product in question and furthermore it offers a uniform user experience for them regardless of the device, make and browser they use to access the website or application.