An application needs to be tested thoroughly before it is released in the marketplace. Testing helps to eliminate the performance bottlenecks and evaluate the application’s speed, responsiveness, and stability. It helps to determine how the application performs under a particular workload.
Client-side performance testing has gained immense importance in recent times. It is done to test the performance application based on its client activity. Client-side performance testing helps ensure that the application delivers stable and consistent performance and gives optimal user experience through advanced front-end technologies and dynamic web content. In front-end testing, the response time, screen rendering times, memory, battery, and data plan usage of the app is tested.
The global mobile application market size is projected to reach $407.31 billion by 2026, growing at a CAaGR of 18.4% from 2019 to 2026. If you want to build a scalable app, it is essential to test your application from your target clients’ perspective or front-end. In client-side performance testing, the QA team behaves like the end-user to identify the app’s issues to optimize the application server and improved CX. Client-side performance monitoring tools help to check the speed index, total load time, or time to the first byte (TTFB).
Client-side performance test types are mainly classified into three categories.
- Desktop tests:Client-side tests are performed on a desktop browser.
- Mobile tests:Client-side tests are performed on mobile devices.
- Limited resources test: Client-side tests are performed with limited CPU resources, memory, network, localization, and more.
Here are 4 reasons why Client-Side Performance Testing is essential.
- Make Your End Users Stay
In client-side performance testing, the QA team behaves like the end-users to understand your application’s baseline performance. It helps to test if the app will deliver consistent performance under a particular workload. Testers can measure the rendering time of an application that is under test on a client’s local machine to understand if the app is susceptible to performance failure.
Client-side performance testing tools help to analyze the content of a web page and generate suggestions to make your pages load faster. The testers can reduce the page load times, bounce rates, and increase conversion rates. If the page loads faster, it improves the chance of retaining the user. Hence, client-side performance testing is an effective method to make the end-users of your mobile, web, or desktop app stay.
- Improve Front-End Elements
Client-side performance testing helps to check the comprehensibility of the visible texts, graphics, formatting, and layout (CSS) of the web page. It also enables the tester to check the functional elements such as the button, links, forms. It analyzes the website’s speed and performance based on performance best practices and timing metrics.
You can check the functional elements’ responsiveness to user actions, and the time it takes to process user’s requests. It enables you to analyze a single site, compare multiple locations to ensure that your app matches the real-world environment. Client-side performance testing helps to optimize the front-end performance of applications. This testing method is a part of non-functional testing, usually performed before or during the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) phase.
- Deliver High-Quality Apps
Client-Side Performance Testing helps to analyze the performance, find bottlenecks, optimize the system, and identify risks related to client-side performance. It allows you to test the basic text and layout, functional elements, formatting, and images. The client-side performance testing records all activities which occur during the load and gives comprehensive reports. The collected data includes information about the subrequests, internal timings values, execution time for each JS-function, and much more.
During client-side testing, you need to consider essential metrics like Speed Index and Time to Interact. Time to interact determines the interactivity of the page by the network and JS activity. Speed Index metric is the average time required by a page to display its visible parts. Using client-side testing tools, you can build high-quality apps.
- Reduce Costs Of Testing
Client-side tracking is typically less expensive than server-side testing. You can test the server load, network latency, client load, type of browser, and much more at a cost-effective price. Moreover, these tools can also be automated to perform the test operations.
Automated client-side testing tools minimize that burden on the manual testers. It may provide an API to control the most widely used web browsers and can be used to evaluate the performance of the website or the app by the front-end developers. You can configure your own choice devices as client-side execution enables you to configure the desired capabilities and devices from the code.
To Conclude:
Client-side performance testing is of paramount importance as it helps to assess the end-user experience. You can counter your application’s performance issues, identify front-end performance bottlenecks, and improve customer experience using this testing methodology.
Good information.