Checked in a real browser

A page can pass every test and still be broken on screen. Your live pages are checked as your users see them, and visible breakage is reported to you with the page it occurs on.

Two panels. On the left, what a test suite sees: page loads, form is present, button exists, all passed. On the right, the same sign-up page on a phone, where a new banner covers the button. Below it, a report names the sign-up page.
  • Your live pages are checked as your users see them.
  • Visible breakage is reported to you as a defect, with the page it occurs on.
  • The fix arrives as a change in your own code repository.

A page can pass every test and still be broken for the person looking at it. Your live pages are checked as your users see them. Visible breakage on live pages is reported to the owner as a defect, with the page it occurs on.

What you get

A second meaning of “it works”: the one your users hold.

Your team’s tests answer a narrow question. Does the code do what it was told? Your users ask a different one. Can I see the menu? Does the form let me finish? Is the price where I expect it to be? Most days the two answers agree. The expensive days are the ones where they do not, and the first person to notice is a customer.

Checking a page in a real browser closes that gap.

When something is wrong, you hear about it as a defect, together with the page where it occurs. That is the part that gives your team time back. Nobody has to ask which screen, or try to rebuild a vague complaint from a support message into steps.

What it is not

It is about breakage, not taste. Whether a colour or a spacing is right stays your call, and so does your brand. No check finds everything either, and this one is no exception. The aim is narrower and more useful: to hear about visible breakage from a report instead of from a customer.

What it looks like in practice

Picture a release on a Tuesday afternoon. Every test passes. On a narrow phone, though, a new banner now sits over the button that opens the sign-up form. Nothing has crashed, so nothing raises an alarm, and new visitors quietly leave.

That is the kind of breakage this ability is for. The fix arrives as a change in your own code repository, where your team can read it before it goes anywhere. You decide what ships. Nothing reaches your users without your approval.

You also decide where attention goes first. Sign-up, checkout and the screens your best customers open every morning are natural places to start. You decide which defects are urgent and which can wait, and you can widen the set of pages as you see what turns up.

How we do the work stays confidential, as your work with us does. What stays visible to you is every change before it ships.

Proof

The statement shown with this capability comes from products under watch today, whose owners we do not name.

Start with the three pages that matter most to your business, and judge the reports by what they find.

Proof

Products under watch

Visible breakage on live pages is reported to the owner as a defect, with the page it occurs on.

Customer anonymised.

Questions leaders ask

Our test suite is green. What would this add?

Tests confirm that the code does what it was told. This looks at what reaches the screen of the person using the page. A green suite and a broken page can both be true on the same afternoon, and this is about the second one.

Is this the same as testing with real users?

No. It cannot tell you whether people like a page or understand it. It tells you when a page that should work is visibly broken, so the time you spend with real users goes on the questions only they can answer.

What happens after a defect is reported?

You decide. A defect can be fixed now, later or not at all, and a fix arrives as a change in your own code repository for your team to read. Nothing reaches your users without your approval.

What does our team have to do?

Name the pages that matter most and read the reports when they arrive. Nobody has to learn a new tool or click through the product by hand after each release.

Lift your eyes and let us carry the rest.

Talk to us and see what carrying your product forward looks like.

Book a conversation

Prefer to write directly? contact@zefana.com