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Re: Making mobile view available to all as way of constraining a11y testing costs

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From: Steve Green
Date: Jan 4, 2018 12:14PM

The approach that we use exactly mirrors Patrick's advice. Find out where all the breakpoints are - don't just check where you expect them to be. Find out what changes and how. Then make an informed decision on what to test at each breakpoint.

If you adopt a more simplistic heuristic such as "just test the end-points" you run the risk of missing some issues. Testing is always a balance between time (and hence cost) and thoroughness, so in some contexts a simple heuristic may be the most appropriate choice.

The important thing is to understand the risks of such an approach and to ensure that your stakeholders are happy with those risks. Let them make the decision because it's their responsibility to assign the necessary resources to achieve the outcomes they require. Don't hide your shortcuts just to please them!

FWIW, I recently tested a website where the mobile content was substantially different from the desktop layout. Not only was the content on each page reduced compared with the desktop layout (which is not unreasonable if done well), but you could not access a lot of the pages from the mobile layout. It was absolutely bonkers!

Not only could you not find pages that you knew existed, but if you reduced the window width on a desktop browser you suddenly couldn't access pages you had viewed a few minutes earlier in the same browser! If you reduced the width of a page that could not be accessed in the mobile layout, the appearance would screw up because the "narrow layout" styles had not been specified for some elements. Obviously I can't name the giant Indian outsource IT company that built this monstrosity.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd