Internationalisation
Oct 12
Why Mobile Testing is an Essential Part of Successful Website Design
Mobile website design has become an exciting and essential part of what we do.
Most of us are now able to access the internet from our phones, radically changing the way that we think about designing and building websites.
They say that failing to plan is planning to fail, and a similar principle applies when we’re talking about mobile-friendly websites which maximum accessibility for the greatest number of people.
One of the most important processes in developing a successful mobile website design is mobile testing.
Written By
Dan Partridge
What is Mobile Testing?
In a nutshell, mobile testing involves accessing a website on a wide range of devices to ensure that the website is functioning properly. This enables us to identify errors or bugs and ensure that when we launch the website it will perform properly across the whole spectrum of mobile devices.
When we design a website we always consider mobile users. The extent to which we do this depends upon the nature of the project, but we consider how the menus, navigation and content will be accessed by mobile visitors. This enables us to develop a suitable responsive template that can adapt to the various devices that users own.
However, even when we’re adopting a mobile-first design process (with mobile users as our primary audience) there are still various complications that can occur.
There are various reasons for this.
The first is the sheer number of mobile devices that are available. Every device is slightly different, which usually means that the website will perform differently.
The second is that every browser performs slightly differently. This isn’t just a mobile issue; we also experience this on desktop PCs and have to perform cross-browser compatibility tests with every website.
The third is that developing a website from a set of designs is a time-consuming process that requires extensive troubleshooting in order to correct unforeseen issues. We cannot escape the fact that developing websites requires a debugging phase.
What Does Mobile Testing Accomplish?
The beauty of mobile testing is that it allows every mobile user to experience your website as it was designed to be. By investing in a mobile-friendly website you are communicating to every mobile visitor that they are highly valued; this raises the bar in terms of what they will expect from your website.
We’ve recently launched a mobile-friendly website for Grace Church Exeter. In the period leading up to the public launch we spent 7-10 days troubleshooting and tweaking the site to ensure that it worked properly. This included our usual cross-browser testing process.
We visited the site using approximately 10 different devices – including various tablets and smartphones. This allowed us to make sure that the site was performing well so that when we launched the site we would keep negative user experience to an absolute minimum.
Within 48 hours of launch the site received 5000+ pageviews, with over 60% of traffic coming from mobile devices. This high volume of mobile traffic is compelling evidence that mobile testing – and indeed, mobile-friendly website design – really is absolutely essential.
Looking for a New Mobile-Friendly Website?
If you’re hunting for a web design agency to design and build a mobile-friendly website then we’d love to hear from you. Why not contact us today for a free initial consultation.