#Ghostlab software software#

For example, it’s key that important call-to-actions are within the physical and comfortable limits for all thumb lengths, but how we would ever know this unless we experience this first hand? Adding GhostLab Software and Device Lab v1 to the Workflow Developing without a device will often make a dev neglect the real physical interactions we have with mobile devices on a day-to-day basis. However, it still left a lot to be desired when it came to capturing the true user experience on mobile devices. Out of all the tools at our disposal, built-in emulators yielded the best results. Using an emulator may get mobile-specific features to work, however we won’t know a webpage is truly rendering the way it should unless we get a physical device in our hands. It does not simulate the OS or even the one specific browser that may be available on that OS. Technically speaking however, emulators only simulate user agents in the request header sent to the server. , ) or built into a browser-help test mobile-specific features. Although resizing the browser will give you a wide range to test breakpoints, it will fail to simulate mobile-specific features.Įmulators-whether a web based service (i.g.

#Ghostlab software full#

The problem with resizing the browser to test a web app’s responsiveness is that a developer won’t get the full context of the environment. Originally, our developers used simple browser resizing and device emulation, as it was the most convenient option. Another workflow challenge we faced was emulation. Needless to say, we needed a better solution. Mind you, this is all assuming the dev remembers that these devices are even available.

not lazy) to go up and walk across the office to grab a device, it wasn’t even guaranteed that devices were of use Some devices weren’t charged or perhaps someone else was already using it. The cache itself wasn’t very impressive, as it was a mixture of dated devices of varying operating systems with few that were actually useful. Overcoming Workflow Challenges One of the main issues we found in our workflow was device accessibility.īefore our device lab, we kept a cache of various mobile devices in a lockbox in the back of the server room. Enter, Imarc's very own, custom device lab.īut first, a little backstory about what prompted the need for a new and improved testing center. Through identifying some common pain points in our workflows-and a common love for music-our team came up with an innovative (dare we say ingenious?) solution. To streamline this process, our UX department needed better tools to test responsive web applications. Imarc recently took on a mobile-first initiative.