This post discusses how you can test your WP site for mobile usability problems.
With the penetration of mobile devices increasing each passing day, every business is trying to target mobile users to get more audience for their website. Most of the website users look for groceries, clothes, etc. on their mobile devices. If the website they are accessing, does not function properly, these users are surely going to leave your site within seconds to find other better alternatives. That is why businesses should consider paying attention to mobile usability problems on their WP sites. This post focuses on various mobile usability issues.
Usually, A Website Is Checked For:
- Interactive elements
- user experience
- Animations and buttons
- Text content
- Graphics
- Page loading speed
- Usability on different devices
We will now discuss the different ways in which you can detect usability issues.
1. Checking Different Mobile Devices
Presently, Android and iOS devices are ruling the market. So you need to have different devices and operating systems such as the latest android mobile phones, the latest version of iOS devices, etc at hand so that you can run and check your WP site on them. The thing you need to look at while testing your site on mobile devices are:
- if your website is working and functioning well or not.
- if there is an error displayed, it is specific to that device or not.
- whether your site is able to load quickly.
- is your website showing compatibility with the latest versions of OS and devices.
- are the users able to fill in the feedback forms, contact forms, and other forms or not.
2. Testing Mobile Devices Using Browser Tools
Browserling
There are many emulator tools present for the browsers that help to handle the different and most commonly faced mobile usability problems. Browserling is one such popular tool especially among beginners and inexperienced developers. As it gives the developers a real-time experience of working on live browsers and virtual machines to test your website’s reading on the spot. Browserling also allows you to resize those browsers along with the resolution to test if your site looks the same or not.
MultiBrowser
MultiBrowser is an emulator known for its speed. It is one of the fast and easy emulators available. This emulator really helps to tackle the majority of the mobile usability problems that deal with user-experience on various browsers. There are multiple sandboxed browsers included in it. With this, you can check how your website looks to the reader from various screens. For further testing, you will be able to take real-time screenshots also.
Google Chrome Embedded Toggling Device
For providing modern-day developers the option to toggle between the browser and mobile view, Chrome comes with a utility option. After you visit your page, you need to right-click and locate the Inspect option from the menu button. Therein, you will see an icon to toggle the device at the top left corner of your window. Now click on the Responsive dropdown menu on the toolbar for solving your recent mobile usability issues. The menu offers you a lot of options where you can select the latest devices used by internet users. With this, you will be able to toggle between the various views of your site and this will help you to get the overall perspective of all your website’s underlying issues that are related to the user experience.
Responsive Mode Of Safari Browser
If you are using the Safari browser, it is easy for you to test your website’s user interface for iPhone users. All you need to do is browse to Develop and then, click on Enter Responsive Design Mode. You will now have a range of the latest iPhone and iPad devices to toggle ade see your site’s view.
How Are These Browser in-built Emulators Helpful?
The browser in-built emulators are helpful for your website’s mobile usability problems by identifying the following things:
- CTAs/Icons:
When you browse through the different screens on your browser, you will be able to see at once which particular mobile device is unable to show the proper layout of your website’s Call To Action (CTA) buttons. As soon as you get to know this, you can quickly adjust the size and then try to re-run the codes to see if everything is shown perfectly or not. This is really helpful as it can save the businesses plenty of orders because if the website users are unable to find the icons clickable, they will simply leave your site or give up the idea of purchasing from you.
- Database Forms:
Collecting data about customers is always a matter of interest for businesses as it helps them to know the target customers better and can help them to improve to deliver the best services and products. The only way your customers can contact you is by filling in the contact information. What these emulators do is, they help you in maintaining contact between you and your target audience or clients to build a trustable relationship.
- Checking The Speed:
Toggling between the screens can give you a better insight regarding the time taken by your website to load on a particular device with the same bandwidth. With this, you will get an idea regarding the real problem which may be related to the screen size or resolution.
3. Emulators For Mobile Devices
iOS Emulator:
Xcode, Appetize.io, TestFlight, Ripple, are some of the iOS emulators. You can say that these emulators are quite similar to virtual machines that you can use for running the various mobile phone applications and browsers to get the mobile experience.
Android Emulator:
Bluestacks, Remix OS Player, MEmu, etc are some of the good and leading emulators useful for detecting mobile usability problems. Remix OS Player can be used to run and test the applications compatible with the Android 6.0 Marshmallow version. MEmu can be used for Android Jellybean and Lollipop.
Wrapping Up:
Hope this post has given you some ideas regarding the different mobile Usability Problems and what are the ways in which you can detect these issues to come up with a mobile-friendly website.
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