x Browser Testing

Has your website being tested across multiple web browsers? Are you confident that your website functions well as expected across different web browsers?


Cross-browser testing is a method of non-functional testing making sure your website or application is functional across multiple browsers. This is necessary because each web browser follows a set of standards (Open Web Standards) but all interpret them separately, rendering HTML, CSS and JavaScript differently.

It is important to test across browser’s as there are now many ways to access a website, through the many different browsers preferred by each user, the different devices with ranging screen widths and assistive tools like screen readers. Understanding this will ensure you give each user the same experience of your website.

To give you an example of why cross-browser testing is required, there are many things that may work with some browsers and not others, with newer versions against older versions. For example;

  • Some HTML tags aren’t recognised by some browsers (or don’t support HTML5), similar to un-supported CSS3 features,
  • Technologies not supported on devices (iPhone cannot utilise Flash),
  • Image orientation is different across browsers.
Those are a few examples of what developers and testers need to watch out for when creating a website or application and why it is necessary to test it.


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Widely Used Browsers

The use of a browser can depend on a few things, mainly region and type of device. Every user has a preference but often people will use the default that comes as standard on certain devices. Below are some common combinations of browsers and devices;

  • Google Chrome on Windows and Mac,
  • Firefox on Windows, Mac and Linux,
  • Chrome on Android and iOS,
  • Safari on iOS (default).
However, they may be the most common uses but browsers like Microsoft Edge still exist and are still utilised by a small percentage of the population. So, developers shouldn’t exclude them from the features of an application as essentially, they’re still customers.


How is Cross-Browser Testing Performed?

First, it’s useful for us to run all the design and test cases on the browser you are using in development – providing you with a baseline of what it should look like.

Secondly, creating a test plan and selecting browsers should be our next step. Choosing your browsers should be based on the research you’ve done on the most common browsers of your audience by site traffic analysis – this specification will outline what we will test and why.

When it comes to the actual testing phase, there are two methods; Manual and Automated. Below is an explanation and the benefits of each;

  • Manual testing is self-explanatory, it consists of our tester going through each test case and checking its result against it’s expected result. Its effective because the tester is immersing themselves with the same user experience any user would have. However, as with anything done by human, there is always scope for human error and could subsequently miss important things.

  • Automated testing is the use of tools, scripts and any software that you give pre-defined actions and the testing is performed automatically across browsers. A tool we use commonly is Selenium. Automated testing is a lot faster than manual as we can run tests in parallel rather than sequentially, however we still need to implement an element of manual testing when using automated tools.