Web Device Testing in Depth: Advanced Techniques For Comprehensive Testing

Are you trying to expand your knowledge about modern web device testing? Currently, as a user, you have many options in terms of devices that can help you access all the web applications in the market. All of these devices offer different operating systems, screen sizes, browsers, and hardware capabilities.

So, it becomes a challenging process for the developers to maintain the consistent performance of their web apps on all of these device combinations. Web device testing is one of the most unanimous solutions to these problems.

With this article, we will take a professional look at all the advanced techniques for implementing comprehensive web device testing. During our discussion, we will also provide insights and strategies that can help the testers achieve reliable and robust web apps in this generation.

Understanding the Complexity of Web Device Testing

With web device testing, the testers have the freedom to ensure that the web apps function correctly across different environments and devices. While implementing web device testing, the complexities can arise due to the diversity of devices and also due to the following variations:

• The current device market has multiple options of devices that start from compact smartphones and go all the way up to large desktop monitors. Each of these devices has different aspect ratios and resolution values.

• There are also multiple operating systems that rule the current app developing industry, including Windows, Android, iOS, and Mac OS. There are also options for various Linux distributions, each with multiple versions that further complicates the development industry.

• If we look at the browser market, we can easily develop the idea that it is also highly cluttered with various options like Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and many others. Moreover, the developers should also count the fact that each of these browsers has various operational versions used by different users.

• While accessing the web applications, the end users can be using various types of network configurations like 3G, 5G, and even WiFi. Each of these configurations will have different speeds, stability, and latency.

• So, by considering all the above factors, we can easily say that the most effective solution is the testers implementing exhaustive testing solutions for implementing consistent user experience.

Advanced Techniques for Comprehensive Web Device Testing

Based on the requirements of the modern testers and current standards of application development, we have mentioned some of the most advanced techniques that can help the testers achieve comprehensive web device testing while utilizing their complete potential and resources:

1. Utilizing Device Farms

Modern online device farms like AWS device farm, and LambdaTest provide access to a massive range of real devices and browsers for testing purposes. By utilizing these farms, the testers can perform the following actions:

• Execute the test suites on real devices rather than limiting them to only emulators. This approach helps the testers to ensure more accurate test results and also analyze the performance of the application when exposed to real world scenarios.

• Automate the test suites across multiple devices simultaneously while saving much company time and resources that can be further reinvested in other areas to improve the overall application functioning.

• Have access to the devices in a remote configuration to facilitate testing across multiple geographical locations without any barriers or restrictions.

LambdaTest is an AI-powered testing platform that allows developers and testers to execute web device tests on a remote test lab of 3000 different combinations of real devices, operating systems, and browser versions. This platform also has various advanced features like parallel test execution, comprehensive test reporting, and native bug logging. We have also mentioned a sample code that allows the developers to execute web device testing using LambdaTest:

2. Responsive Design Testing

Since modern users can access the same web app on multiple devices, the application’s user interface must be able to cope up with these changes. For instance, all the web-based elements must adjust to different screen sizes, orientations, and resolutions.

Using responsive design testing, the testers can ensure this implementation while providing an optimal user experience across all configurations. A properly executed responsive design testing infrastructure will include the following instances:

• Using viewport resizing, the testers can manually resize the browser window to test breakpoints or discrepancies within the functioning and placement of all the user interface elements.

• The testers can use media queries like CSS media queries to apply various styles. These styles will be based on the device characteristics or the requirements of the application that is currently being interested.

• Finally, using the dedicated, responsive design mode, the testers can use built-in browser tools like Chrome DevTools for simulating different devices or user interactions and understanding the behavior of the application.

The following code snippet shows the implementation of CSS media queries while executing web device testing:

3. Cross-Browser Testing

In the modern generation, it is very important for the app developing companies to implement and ensure the compatibility of the application across multiple devices. A properly executed and implemented cross-browser testing scenario will include the following parameters:

• The testers can include automation testing instances using tools like Cypress, Selenium, and Playwright. This practice will help the application infrastructure to automatically initiate the test instances whenever there is any change in the app source code.

• Using Polyfills and Shims that come natively with JavaScript, the application testers can provide compatibility for older browser versions as well. It is a paramount process, as various surveys show that almost 80% of the users do not update their browser versions.

• The testers can also implement progressive enhancement and graceful degradation while implementing cross-browser testing. It is the process of building apps that provide core functionality across all browsers while enhancing the experience wherever possible.

We have mentioned a sample code snippet that uses Selenium WebDriver to execute automated cross-browser testing on modern applications:

4. Network Condition Testing

We all know that every user will not have access to the same Internet service provider. So, it is important for the app developing companies to execute the test instances under various network conditions to ensure that the web app performs well in real-world scenarios. This technique must consist of the following parameters to ensure its accuracy:

• Firstly, it is very important for the testers to implement throttling network speed testing. To perform this process, the testers can use browser developer tools or network simulation tools to understand how the application behaves under various network conditions.

• It is also important to perform offline testing while executing network condition testing. This process will help the testers to ensure that the app behaves correctly when the network is suddenly unavailable. To implement this process, the testers can use various modern technologies like service workers.

The following code snippet shows the implementation of network throttling using Chrome DevTools:

5. Accessibility Testing

According to a survey conducted by reputed organization, almost 25% of the global Internet users have some form of disability. So, the testers must ensure that their web apps are accessible to users with all forms of requirements. This approach is not only a legal requirement in many countries but also a best practice for implementing inclusive design practices.

To properly implement accessibility testing on modern web applications, the developers must include the following parameters:

• It is important to automate the test cases using various tools like Lighthouse, WAVE, or Axe. This implementation will allow the testers to identify common accessibility issues without implementing much manual labor.

• Next, it is also important to manually test the functioning of various assistive technologies like screen readers. This is an important parameter because various screen readers like JAWS or an NVDA cannot be properly evaluated using automated testing practices.

We have mentioned a sample code snippet that will allow the testers to implement accessibility testing on modern web applications.

6. Performance Testing

Before deploying an application to the end users, the testers must ensure that it is properly functional irrespective of all the device configurations, hardware conditions, or any other form of software restrictions.

Using accessibility testing, the app developers can also ensure that the app loads quickly and maintains stability under high traffic or user load.

The proper implementation of this process must include the following parameters:

• It is important for the testers to use various tools like Apache JMeter, Gatling, or K6 to simulate heavy user load and evaluate the stability or behavior of the application under these conditions.

• The testers must implement real user monitoring to collect performance data from real users to understand the performance of the application based on various unpredictable user interactions or behaviors.

• Finally, it is important for app developing companies to implement synthetic monitoring. To perform this process, the testers can use tools like WebPageTest or Lighthouse that will help stimulate user interactions and measure the performance metrics of the application simultaneously.

Using the following code snippet, the application developers can implement Lighthouse CLI on their web apps:

7. Security Testing

If we survey the modern apps, we can easily understand that all of these apps contain a lot of sensitive user information, including their login credentials, their banking details, or any other form of unshakable data. So, while rolling out modern apps, it is very important for the testers to implement security testing to find out vulnerabilities in the web app and protect against attacks.

Modern security testing processes must include the following parameters:

• Using static application security testing, the app developers can analyze the source code for any form of security flaws.

• On the other hand, dynamic application security testing verifies the security of a running application for any vulnerabilities.

• Finally, using penetration testing, the application developers can run simulated attacks for identifying weaknesses within the application infrastructure.

The following sample code simulates OWASP ZAP on a web app:

The Final Verdict

By keeping in mind all the advanced techniques that we elaborated in this article, we can conclude that web device testing is a very important and essential part of ensuring a smooth user experience across different environments and devices. By using this advanced technique, developers and testers can build reliable, robust, and inclusive web applications.

Moreover, by embracing all the advanced technologies for web app testing, the testers can improve the performance and quality of the software to enhance user satisfaction and trust. The ultimate goal of this approach is to contribute to the success of the app in this ever-evolving and competitive world.