Without unlimited time and budgets, cross-browser testing always involves compromise – so how can government websites satisfy everyone?
Last week the UK government published a consultation paper on developing browser standards for public sector websites.
For web developers like us, producing a website that looks and works correctly across the many different web browsers (and different versions of them) is a difficult task. There are almost infinite combinations of platforms (Windows / Mac), browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, plus many many lesser known names) and versions – each respecting standards to a different degree, and each with their own quirks and bugs.
Although we’re experienced enough to be able to avoid many of the common pitfalls, we still have to intensively test sites across many of the combinations before we go live. We have a QA checklist which helps us achieve this every time.
Obviously the publication of the consultation document is of relevance to us here at Rocket, as our work with the HSE and other public sector organisations will have to implement the browser testing methodology which is being proposed.
Luckily, the general recommendations and platform combinations suggested by the COI are very similar to the process we already go through. The main difference being that the government advice is based on % user-base for the specific site – whereas because we are often working on new sites with no historical data to analyse, we use the Yahoo browser gradings to determine what we generally support. The resulting browser list is, however, pretty similar.
The competition between web browsers is healthier than at any time in the last ten years – yet browser testing is currently easier than ever before. Although there are many new browsers, they are mostly based on the same layout engines (e.g. Google Chrome uses Webkit – the same as Safari) which all render HTML/CSS much more closely to the defined standards, meaning less variation.
Whether this situation will continue is another matter – while new browsers may share a layout engine, some are creating their own Javascript interpreters (e.g. Google Chrome), which may mean that while they appear visually similar, the way they behave may bring it’s own set of inconsistencies. And as rich internet applications (RIA) become more important, this will become more and more crucial.
One thing is certain – until every browser renders every page pixel perfectly to published standards, we’re going to have to continue testing, testing, testing…
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