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Is it dangerous to use responsive testsites?

by dgmufasa
4 replies
First of all, somehow the favorite .ico file of a test responsive website somehow got on my own. Yup , that's right, the favico of a responsive test website is now the favico of my own.

Secondly - ow do these work anyway? Are these browser related? For example, all can look great when I use the responsive test site to test my own system - but - when someone else (let's say a client) runs the code (that the Responsive Testsite gave a thumbs-up on), there's a chance where it won't pass or may pass because the client's browser is older?

I guess the test site just uses your own browser and just breaks the page up with iframes (so you don't have to resize manually)?
#dangerous #responsive #testsites
  • Profile picture of the author dgmufasa
    OK - I seem to have found an answer:
    No matter how you test your mobile responsive designs, it is very important that you do so. Make sure not only to test at multiple breakpoints and resolutions, but also in different operating systems and on different browsers as well. You never know where someone will be viewing your website or with what device, so it’s best to try and cover all of your bases in order to ensure a good experience for all users who access your content online.
    So - then what is the point of using these sites? It's just a convenience factor (so you don't have to constantly resize the browser)? I suppose I am not understanding the reasoning in its entirety. My understanding is that Firefox does not run on mobile devices - so - what good does it do to ensure that the 280px or 380px width looks good in that case?

    Is there a way (or place) where one can "test once" and have a reasonable assurance that it will work - on most cases - for other browsers?
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    • Profile picture of the author GeneralLedger
      @dgmufasa
      favicons can definitely be a little finicky. My recommendation would be to clear your browser cache (history) and see if you are still seeing the wrong favicon. If you don't want to clear your history, you could open an Incognito window in Chrome or a Private Window in Firefox and see if you are still seeing the wrong favicon.

      To your other question, what is the purpose of responsive sites. There are all sorts of screen resolutions. Extra large monitors, regular monitors, tablets, phablets, phones, each with their own resolution. If you are building a website, you should design it to provide a good user experience regardless of the device it is being viewed on. A great example of this is newsweek.com. Open it up on your computer and slowly resize your browser window so it is narrow like a phone. Look at how the site changes so that it is still usable at every resolution.

      If you are looking to test at various resolutions, you can use the Firefox function. Or, if you don't use Firefox, here is a great little tool I use. Responsive design testing tool

      With regards to browser compatibility, responsive design is not inherently non-compatible, but responsive sites tend to be more advanced and may feature css and javascript functions that are not supported in older browsers. According to this link, media queries, which is the most important CSS function for responsive design is not supported in IE8, although from personal experience, I think they are Can I use... Support tables for HTML5, CSS3, etc

      Hope this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonthewebmaster
    Banned
    The responsive issues have nothng to do with favicon.ico file. The favicon is declared in header or sometimes detected automatically if it's present.

    Responsive sites are better then mobile redirects because it's literally the same site content no matter what device you are on... the only thing changing is the style or layout.

    Hope that makes sense. The new HTML5 and CSS3 will eventually help to standardize things for all browsers moving forward, and most mobile browsers are using webkit or webkit compatible stuff nowadays.

    On the other hand there are more devices and screen sizes to test code on then ever before so yes it does get very complicated to make sure sites display perfect on all devices.
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  • Profile picture of the author jlucas
    There is a resizing feature built into Firefox, it is really awesome. Look at a webpage and press "CTRL + Shift + M"

    That takes care of resolutions for responsive testing. Now for multiple browsers, I've found 2 solutions. The first is a pay site:
    https://www.browserstack.com/

    In my experience it is the bomb, but it is a little pricey.

    There is a free service that works, but it can be slow depending on the queue:
    Check Browser Compatibility, Cross Platform Browser Test - Browsershots

    Media queries, as far as I've seen, size uniformly cross-platform, so usually if it looks good at one resolution in Firefox, it should look good at the same resolution in most browsers.
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