{
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    "title" : "Trends on Tuesday: Mobile Web Lessons From the CrowdSource Mobile Testing Program |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Trends on Tuesday: Mobile Web Lessons From the CrowdSource Mobile Testing Program",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/02/24/trends-on-tuesday-mobile-web-lessons-from-the-crowdsource-mobile-testing-program/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Trends on Tuesday: Mobile Web Lessons From the CrowdSource Mobile Testing Program","summary" : "Practice makes perfect. But in the mobile world, it’s testing that makes products better. For federal agencies that have developed their own apps or mobile-friendly sites, the CrowdSource Mobile Testing Program offers a simple way to collect feedback on compatibility testing. Since the program’s inception in March 2013, eight federal mobile websites (including responsive design)","date" : "2015-02-24T10:00:03-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"david-fern" : "David Fern"},"topics" : {
        
            "emerging-tech" : "Emerging tech",
            "mobile" : "Mobile",
            "user-experience" : "User experience"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2015-02-24-trends-on-tuesday-mobile-web-lessons-from-the-crowdsource-mobile-testing-program.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2015/02/2015-02-24-trends-on-tuesday-mobile-web-lessons-from-the-crowdsource-mobile-testing-program.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/02/2015-02-24-trends-on-tuesday-mobile-web-lessons-from-the-crowdsource-mobile-testing-program.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/02/2015-02-24-trends-on-tuesday-mobile-web-lessons-from-the-crowdsource-mobile-testing-program.md","slug" : "trends-on-tuesday-mobile-web-lessons-from-the-crowdsource-mobile-testing-program","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/02/24/trends-on-tuesday-mobile-web-lessons-from-the-crowdsource-mobile-testing-program/","content" :"\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/02/600-x-450-Silhouette-of-business-people-in-the-middle-of-circuit-board-Wavebreakmedia-Ltd-Wavebreak-Media-Thinkstock-175224848.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Silhouette of business people in the middle of circuit board\"/\u003e\u003cp\u003eWavebreakmedia, Ltd., Wavebreak Media, Thinkstock\u003c/p\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003ePractice makes perfect. But in the mobile world, it’s testing that makes products better.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor federal agencies that have developed their own apps or mobile-friendly sites, the Federal Crowdsource Mobile Testing Program offers a simple way to collect feedback on \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2013/11/21/mobile-product-compatibility-and-functional-testing-101/\"\u003ecompatibility testing\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince the program’s inception in March 2013, eight federal mobile websites (including responsive design) have been tested by 65 federal employees from 41 agencies. The benefits are twofold: agencies receive actionable feedback about their mobile websites, and testers gain valuable knowledge about mobile websites that they can share with their own agencies.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuring each test cycle, testers log issues specific to the application or site being tested. Four themes have emerged from the logs, with lessons that are relevant to anyone developing mobile websites.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"shrinking-the-screen-is-not-enough\"\u003eShrinking the Screen Is Not Enough\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMoving from a “desktop” presentation to \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/topics/mobile/\"\u003eresponsive design\u003c/a\u003e isn’t always as simple as making the page smaller or changing the screen size.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSmaller mobile screens often mean smaller fonts and buttons that become hard to read and press.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePage content must be pared down to allow users to easily find what they are looking for. This can also have a positive impact on desktop user experience. Marissa Newhall, acting director of the Office of Digital Strategy and Communications at the Department of Energy (DOE), said optimizing \u003ca href=\"http://www.energy.gov\"\u003eEnergy.gov\u003c/a\u003e’s content for mobile helped simplify the functionality of the desktop version. Newhall spoke about Energy.gov’s responsive implementation during DigitalGov’s webinar, \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/10/21/responsive-web-design-challenges-webinar-recap/\"\u003eResponsive Web Design Challenges\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDisplaying data becomes problematic: on smaller screens, users cannot always tell where they are in the data. Our testing group came up with \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/10/28/trends-on-tuesday-8-ways-to-format-tables-for-responsive-web-design/\"\u003e8 Ways To Format Tables for Responsive Web Design\u003c/a\u003e, providing potential solutions to this issue.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"inspector-gadget-sometimes-has-malfunctions-\"\u003eInspector Gadget Sometimes Has Malfunctions ****\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome “gadgets” that enhance websites are not fully functional on mobile devices.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/08/13/photo-carousels-on-mobile-websites-use-with-caution/\"\u003ePhoto carousels present challenges\u003c/a\u003e that may result in poor user experience. On some devices, users are unable to scroll. On other devices, scrolling is changed from horizontal to vertical.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDebra Fioritto of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service pointed to PDFs as a content challenge during the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/05/15/defense-finance-and-accounting-service-goes-responsive/\"\u003eDFAS responsive design implementation\u003c/a\u003e. Fioritto is working to make ‘mobile-first’ the standard for content development in her office.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFlash video has no functionality on iOS.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"mobile-comes-in-many-sizes-and-views\"\u003eMobile Comes in Many Sizes and Views\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are over 300 unique mobile screen resolutions that can display in both portrait and landscape.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe view or page layout and design that you see on the smaller smartphone screen may be totally different when viewed on a tablet.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDifferent screen resolutions need to be tested on different devices.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"wifi-can-disrupt-functionality\"\u003eWiFi Can Disrupt Functionality\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMobile devices may behave differently as they switch between WiFi and cellular data networks.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eResponsive applications download all images and content to a device, but they only use certain parts that are critical for proper display. A \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2014/11/18/trends-on-tuesday-speed-matters-when-measuring-responsive-web-design-performance-load-times/\"\u003ebusy page may be slow to load due to graphics that are not shown on the mobile page\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMany devices are set to automatically connect to WiFi. When a user connects to WiFi that requires a log on, the application may not display properly until the user manually logs in.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDo you want to help us create more mobile lessons learned? Join in and sign up to help us \u003ca href=\"https://midas.18f.us/tasks/45\"\u003evirtually test BusinessUSA.gov\u003c/a\u003e at your leisure next week.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYou can also submit your mobile Web application for a future test cycle. The Federa Crowdsource Mobile Testing Program page provides information on how you can use this free service to test your products and is sponsored by the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/topics/mobile/\" title=\"Mobile\"\u003eMobileGov Community of Practice\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}