Wednesday 1 March 2017

What Is Responsive Web Design and How to Test It?

Nowadays almost each person, a child or an adult, has different devices: smartphones, iPads, iPods, and so on. All information and resources which are available on the big PC's monitor should be correctly displayed on the small mobile screen as well.
Technologies change very fast along with people wants and needs. Thus, favorite websites should obligatory have their mobile versions in order the user may visit it wherever he is. Unfortunately, not all of the internet sources are geared towards portative devices properly. In this case, a tester's task is to perform thorough web design testing.
Opening the source, the server should recognize the "m" domain in order to redirect the user to phone-optimized version. Today it is of great importance to personalize the company's website design, considering its resolution. But it is quite challenging to create a certain version for all devices and each resolution. There is a solution.
The so-called responsive web design (RWD) - a type of advanced web design which is able to adapt and change its features according to the desired mobile phone and screen resolution. An idea is that all visual components, such as photos/images, buttons, tabs or icons, should be modified, depending on the type of device.
There is an opinion that content is like water: whether you poured it out, it became an inherent part of the recipient. That is exactly about RWD.
What Should We Know About RWD?
  • Usability is at the first place - developers, writing the code of the future system, should pay special attention to its design, load, content, and performance.
  • Breakpoints - in order to define the layout, developers utilize the breakpoints for a certain design.
  • HTML/CSS - to auto-resize images and resolutions, HTML and CSS features are applied.
  • Frameworks - JS, PHP, .Net, and many others are used under the RWD development.
In order to successfully check responsive web design, the testers should execute software testing of a website on the various devices. Actually, it is a rather complex task to be purely fulfilled. A tester would need a great number of devices. Likely, there is a way out - write test scenarios, according to which the system will change the size of the browser window.
What Conditions Should Be Considered When Writing Test Scenarios for Responsive Website Checking?
  1. There is a certain image for one specified resolution type.
  2. There is only one URL for all devices in all browsers.
  3. There is a dynamic feature in the content when resizing.