Test on what your customers use, which your analytics browser report will show: usually Safari on iPhones, Chrome on Android and Windows, then Edge. Check Internet Explorer 11 only if it appears there. The office PC is rarely typical.

The computer the site gets checked on

When the owner of a small business checks the website, it is usually on the office computer: a desktop with a large screen, a fast wired connection, and whatever browser came with it.

On many of those machines, that browser is still Internet Explorer 11, kept because the accounting software or a supplier's portal once insisted on it.

Customers see the site somewhere else entirely: mostly on a phone, over a cellular connection, in Safari or Chrome, arriving for the first time.

A site can look perfect on the first and be broken on the second, and nobody at the business will ever know.

Finding out what your customers use

There is no need to guess. Universal Analytics records the browser and device behind every visit.

Under Audience, the Technology section has a Browser & OS report, and the Mobile section shows the split between desktop, phone and tablet. Use the last twelve months, so one odd week does not skew it.

The top five or six combinations, such as Safari on iOS or Chrome on Android, are your test list, in that order. If Internet Explorer barely appears, the office PC may be one of the few machines still using it.

The browsers worth testing

The first is the one offices miss, usually because nobody at the business owns an iPhone.

Apple requires every browser on the iPhone to use Safari's engine underneath. Chrome on an iPhone therefore behaves like Safari, and testing it there tests Safari and nothing else.

What breaks on an iPhone

Most sites work in Safari. The failures are specific, and they repeat from site to site.

Fixed backgrounds, where a photograph stays still while the page scrolls over it, are not supported on the iPhone. Unless the site turns the effect off for phones, the photograph can appear hugely enlarged and blurred.

Background videos play by themselves only when muted and set to play within the page; otherwise the visitor sees a still frame or an empty box.

And Safari does not display WebP images at all, so a site serving them without a fallback shows empty frames.

What breaks in Internet Explorer 11

Internet Explorer 11 dates from 2013. Microsoft stopped adding features to it years ago in favour of Edge, but it still receives security fixes, which is one reason it lingers.

Modern layouts break first. The current standard for grid layouts is not supported, so a neat row of service boxes can collapse into a single column or overlap.

Scripts fail worst. One line of newer JavaScript can stop an entire script from running, taking the menu, the slider or the contact form with it, unless whoever built the site converted the code for older browsers.

A worked example

A furniture store with one showroom had its site rebuilt in 2017, with a large photograph of a living room across the top of the home page.

The photograph used the fixed-background effect, and on the sales desk computer, a Windows 7 machine running Internet Explorer 11, it looked handsome.

A customer mentioned at the till that the website looked odd on her phone. On an iPhone, the header showed an enormous, blurred close-up of one cushion.

Safari on the iPhone does not support fixed backgrounds, and the way the effect had been built made it scale the photograph to the length of the whole page.

Whoever maintained the site switched the effect off on phones and tablets, where the photograph now sits normally.

The store's analytics showed Safari on iPhones as its largest group of visitors. Internet Explorer was barely there, and most of that was the store's own computer.

Edge and Windows 7

Edge, the browser that comes with Windows 10, has its own engine for now. In December, Microsoft announced that it is rebuilding Edge on Chromium, the open-source project underneath Chrome, with a preview due early this year.

Once that arrives, Edge should display pages much as Chrome does, taking one engine off the testing list over time. Office computers update slowly, though, so the current Edge stays on the list for a while.

Microsoft also ends support for Windows 7 on January 14 next year, and many offices will replace machines during 2019. That will shrink Internet Explorer's share without ending it, since it exists on Windows 10 too.

For a business selling to other businesses, Internet Explorer may matter for a while yet. For one selling to the public, it mostly matters as the browser at the front desk.

Testing without a drawer full of phones

Most businesses can cover their list with the devices already in the building, plus one or two borrowed.

Browser tools that preview a phone-sized screen help with layout, but they are not the real thing: Chrome's phone preview uses Chrome's engine, so it will never show you a Safari problem.

On each device, check the same few things: the home page, the menu, one service page, the phone number tapped, the contact form actually sent, and any booking or checkout to the last step.

The counter-case

The list can be shorter than it looks.

A business whose report shows almost no Internet Explorer can drop it from testing, and a simple site with little scripting breaks less often in any browser.

Working is also not the same as identical. In an older browser, a plainer layout is fine, provided the words, the phone number and the form all work.

The opposite applies to a supplier selling to offices, hospitals or schools, where locked-down computers keep old browsers in use. For them, Internet Explorer stays on the list, perhaps near the top.

Either way, test on what your own customers use, starting with an iPhone.

The test, in order

  1. Open the browser report in Analytics.
  2. List the top five browser and device pairs.
  3. Borrow an iPhone if nobody has one.
  4. Check the menu and the form on each.
  5. Send a real enquiry from a phone.
  6. Test Internet Explorer only if customers use it.
  7. Repeat after every redesign or major update.

Step three is the one that finds the most problems. The iPhone is where many of your customers are and where the office has never looked, so it is where the surprises wait.

Why every iPhone still needs a fallback image is covered in WebP works in Firefox now.

Frequently asked questions

Which browsers should I test my site on?

The ones your analytics browser report shows customers using. For most local businesses that means Safari on iPhones, Chrome on Android and Windows, then Edge.

Is Chrome on an iPhone different from Safari?

Not underneath. Apple requires every browser on the iPhone to use Safari's engine, so Chrome there behaves like Safari, and testing it tests Safari.

Do I still need to support Internet Explorer?

Only if your customers use it. Check your analytics; for many consumer businesses it barely appears, while suppliers selling to offices may still see plenty of it.

What typically breaks on an iPhone?

Fixed background effects, which can show a photograph hugely enlarged; background videos that are not muted; and WebP images served without a JPEG or PNG fallback.

What is happening to Microsoft Edge?

Microsoft announced in December that it is rebuilding Edge on Chromium, the project behind Chrome. Once released, Edge should display pages much as Chrome does.

Why is the office computer misleading?

It is usually a desktop on a fast connection, sometimes running Internet Explorer 11, while most customers arrive on phones using Safari or Chrome over cellular data.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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