We are witnessing tremendous growth in the IT industry, especially in the last two decades, with almost every business going online, either through websites, mobile applications, or web apps. With the way things are going, experts predict that two-thirds of the world’s population will go online by the end of 2023.
With people having multiple options to access their online content using different devices and platforms, it is crucial to ensure that your apps perform excellently across all devices and browsers. You may end up losing a significant chunk of customers if your users find your application works well on a specific device or browser but does not perform well on others, So even if you create a top-notch product, you must ensure the app is compatible across multiple device and browser combinations to ensure your customers don’t reject your application.
It is vital to understand your user’s preferences for platforms and devices and strive to provide consistent, engaging experiences across them. This is where cross browser testing comes into the picture. Cross browser testing enables enterprises to deliver software that is compatible across all major platforms and devices.
Undoubtedly, cross browser testing must be an integral part of your software development process to ensure that your applications are accepted by users. This article will help you gain a better understanding of cross browser testing, understand its importance, and know how you can perform the same for your applications.
What is cross browser testing?
Cross browser testing is a non-functional testing method that evaluates if a website or web app performs optimally across various browsers and environments. It checks if all the components, i.e., text, images, videos, etc., of a web application or website are working as intended.
In cross browser testing, the website is tested by running it on different browser device combinations, including popular browsers like Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Edge. It is also tested across widely-used operating systems like Windows, iOS, and Android.
Additionally, cross browser testing tests the compatibility with assistive tools like screen readers that help differently-abled users.
Why is cross browser testing so significant?
The rendition or appearance of a page in different browsers may not be the same. The components viewed may be different across all environments. Hence, it becomes important to conduct cross browser testing to ensure a consistent viewing experience. For example, a customer may find that the application that he has accessed on Google Chrome is not working the way he wants it to. This may lead him to switch to another browser or even another product that is compatible across multiple platforms. The only way to ensure this does not happen is to conduct cross browser testing before you release your application.
Here is why cross browsing issues occur:
The browser engine is a significant part of every browser, and each web page, website, or web app is rendered only through the browser engine. When the URL is called, the browser engine renders the components after identifying the programming languages and frameworks used in the URL. However, the browser engine interprets the components in its own way, and it is these differences in interpretation that lead to cross browser issues.
Ways how browsers may impact the web experience
- Differences in rendering: Every browser interprets HTML and CSS rules differently, leading to variations in the rendering of web pages. For example, a browser may display a particular element slightly larger or smaller than another browser. This can cause inconsistency in layouts or misalignments.
- JavaScript Compatibility: Some browsers do not support certain JavaScript APIs. While certain functionalities work smoothly in one browser, they may not work in others.
- Variations in performance: Different browsers vary when it comes to performance, including the way they render, execute JavaScript, or manage memory. For example, one website performing perfectly in one browser may load slowly in another one.
Here are some more common examples of issues that may arise if cross browser testing is not conducted:
- Video or audio content may not play in some browser versions
- Dropdown menus may not display correctly in certain browsers
- The website layout could appear distorted on mobile devices
- JavaScript transitions or animations may not display properly in some browsers.
- Some page elements may overlap or be misaligned in certain browser resolutions
- When you click on a button or link, the intended action may not get activated in a specific browser
- Background images may appear distorted in certain browsers.
All these prove that cross browser testing is unavoidable to ensure your applications perform excellently across different browsers and provide a good user experience to people installing the application.
What should testers check while conducting cross browser testing?
Here are the items QA teams should check while doing cross browser testing:
- Basic functionality: Testers need to verify if the website’s core features are functioning as expected. The following are some of the important features to check:
- Search feature: Verify if the search feature gives the expected results
- Navigation: Check the navigation menu, buttons, and links and see if they lead to the right pages and sections of the website
- Third-party integrations: Check the data exchange and functionality between third-party services and the website
- User registration and login: Check if the account registration process is smooth and if the verifications emails are sent to the right place
- Accessibility: Examine if the web elements can be easily accessed using only the keyboard or if the assistive technology is friendly for users who are physically challenged, etc.
- Responsiveness: Verify whether the screen resolution is impacting the website layout. Test if the web design is optimized for all screen types and resolutions for devices like tablets, mobile phones and desktops.
Summing Up
For any software developing company to ensure success for its business, the customer’s user experience needs to be given top priority. This is possible only through cross-browser testing that helps eliminate inconsistency and brings a standardized experience, regardless of what browsers the users choose to access their website or web application.
However, selecting the right cross browser testing tool is crucial to ensure the success of your testing efforts. Ideally, your testing tool should let you test your website on all the commonly used browser-OS combinations simultaneously,
We suggest you to try TestGrid, an end to end test automation platform that allows users to perform cross browser testing along with other important tests like mobile app testing, API testing, performance testing etc., on one single platform.
With TestGrid, you can test your application on real devices and browsers instead of using emulators or simulators, ensuring an optimized user experience. Moreover, you can run automated cross browser testing on multiple browsers and OS in parallel with its AI-based intelligence and accelerate your end-to-end cross browser testing.
