Mobile Website Usability Testing

Mobile web browsing is the next major Internet platform. Nowadays it is easy to browse the net using mobile handsets due to the development of Technology. The needs and behavior of a mobile user varies largely from an Internet user. Since most of the mobile users fall under the category of “intended users” rather than “surfers”, the most important aspect however is the functionality more than style for mobile websites.

We have identified some major problems faced by the mobile users and with the help of our mobile testers; we have created a Checklist in order to perform an effective Mobile Website Usability testing.

Major problems faced by Mobile users are:

1. Fewer visible options due to small screen size

2. Trouble to handle GUIs like menus, buttons, hypertext links, and scroll bars

3. Navigation delays due to Network Bandwidth restrictions

4. Incompatible design across mobile phones

Mobile Website Usability Checklist

1. Check the display across various mobile devices

Many mobile handsets hugely vary with screen sizes and resolution to a variety of shapes. The most important challenge for mobile developers is the way to display the site appropriately across a range of screen sizes without having to recreate pages for different platforms. Ensure the site design supports handsets ranging from Basic models to Smart phones.

2. Check the Page length 

It is always better to break down huge pages with lengthy scrolls into several pages, limiting the user to scroll to one direction. Consider fragmenting web pages into small portions.

3. Check whether the mobile site has a simplified design

Simplicity equates to usability. Avoid using tables, frames and other formatting while designing a mobile web page. The more the user clicks the links on mobile websites, the more he needs to wait for the page to get loaded.

Avoid using large images and flash animation, as it will slow down your site. Test, validate, and check if it’s compatible with all mobile devices.

4. Provide an alternate option to view the full website (Desktop version)

It is good to provide a link for mobile visitors to view your full website to find and view the other content and features that are accessible to the desktop version.

Since most of the user is doing a lot of vertical scrolling, it is always preferred to provide internal links like “Back” and “Top” so that the user can jump within the page in an easier manner.

5. Check the Navigation placement

Try to get to know your users and be aware of what they are looking for. Find out how they want to navigate to your site. For users who want to navigate on a particular category, place the navigation at the top of the page. For users who prefer to see changing content quickly, position your navigation menu below the content.

For large websites, we recommend providing ‘Back’ button and ‘Cookie Trail’ links on pages other than the homepage to ensure easy navigation within the site.

6. Check for website optimization

Site load-time should be reasonable, it is always preferred to use text links instead of fly-out menus, buttons, rollovers or other fancy gadgets, since navigation plays a major role for mobile users. When the GUI functionality fails in mobile browsers, then the user may leave the site. Try to optimize the images used in the site, as it takes time (lower bandwidth) to download the images. It is always better to provide alt tags for images since alt tags appears as an alternative text before the image gets loaded.

7. Check whether the entire page is fully rendered across mobile handsets

Scrolling plays a vital role for mobile sites, due to the screen resolution. It is always better to have a separate piece of code for scroll buttons, since some mobiles web browsers don’t render default scroll bars.

8. Balance links – Test the number of links per page

When a page is downloaded, it consumes a huge amount of time and network resource, wherein the network resource is always in short supply, so try not to force the user to dig through the pages in order to access the whole information. Have a balance between the number of links on each page and the depth of the site.

9. Check whether the input fields are minimized

Reduce user text entry. It is hard to input text in mobile sites. Try to make use of radio buttons or list instead, so they can opt from what they need with ease. Remember that mobiles users don’t have access to conventional keyboard and mouse. It is always suggested to use Short URLs than the long ones, because it’s monotonous to type in long URLs.

10. Check whether the mobile site uses popup or refreshes

Many Mobile browsers normally do not support pop-ups. And if they did, they’d have very narrow space to pop into. Stay away from using them to avoid unpredictable results. Allow the user to refresh the content manually instead of refreshing it periodically to avoid filling the device-limited memory.