Cross Browser Testing for Healthcare Sites: Things to Know

A healthcare website is the face of your healthcare or medical service. It is the first step users experience about your services.

According to Statcounter’s current statistics, Chrome is used by 63.84%, Safari by 19.56%, Edge by 4%, Firefox by 3.91%, Samsung Internet by 2.84, and Opera by 2.35 % of global internet users.

Imagine putting in all your effort to create a top-notch healthcare website on Google Chrome, only to have it fail terribly in Safari, Internet Explorer, or any other desktop or mobile browser. It would be a significant setback for your business. And it is something you don’t want to happen.

Here comes the need for cross browser testing to ensure that your healthcare website is compatible with all browsers and devices to deliver a seamless experience to your users everywhere.

Let us say you launch your website without including cross-browser testing in your SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). In that case, you run the stake of delivering a poor user experience to your website visitors. It will: 

• Experience slow website performance
• Fail to attract a new customer
• Risk customer privacy and data breach
• Fail to retain existing customers
• Lead customers to switch to your competitor

The user experience isn’t the only issue; you must also consider your website’s UI (User Interface). Cross-browser testing will improve your users’ accessibility and readability.

Why healthcare sites need to be tested on different browsers and devices

According to McKinsey’s report, adopting IT for healthcare to automate operations and churn large numbers of statistical data is already on the transformation journey.

The industry has witnessed the second wave of digitization/IT adoption about two decades later. It was the catalyst for two transformations:

• It combined several parts of crucial processes within an organization.
• It enabled B2B procedures such as supply-chain management for many institutions across sectors.

While digitalization is a solution, developing a solid and market-ready system for healthcare is critical. The apparent purpose is to provide a new, agile, digitally robust, and secure user interface platform for business.

Thus, the demand for medical software will continue to expand, including electronic health records (EHR), healthcare CRM, and mobile apps for medical personnel and patients.

Medical software requires a unique approach to testing, designed mainly to the demands of the healthcare business due to the industry’s stringent and specialized quality criteria.

Healthcare software should allow for accurate data sharing, reduce time and effort for health professionals when performing everyday operations, function consistently, and securely handle sensitive data. As a result, you should verify such software from the standpoints of interoperability, usability, performance, and regulatory compliance.

Recommended Post: Tips To Enhance Cross Browser Device Testing

Consequences of skipping a cross-browser testing

• Lack of interest in products and services offered by your website
• If the website does not work with various other devices, such as printers, the end-users will be dissatisfied. There may also be damage to the hardware.
• Interoperability difficulties may arise if the website is incompatible with different database versions.
• If the network is not on the website, the user may face performance and bandwidth concerns.

The challenges that come with cross-browser testing

Healthcare is sensitive to changes and advances because lives are genuinely on the line. This extra caution leads to workarounds and barriers, making developing a new healthcare app more complex. 

If the testing phase does not meet all industry criteria and standards, the operation’s expenditures will increase, and the team will appear unprofessional. It includes a massive amount of data, such as:

• Sites collect and store various medical metrics (pulse, pressure, heart rate, sleep, calories, etc.).
• Fitness device data (exercise complexes, performance monitoring, body weight).
• Apps for a healthy lifestyle (advice on an active lifestyle, dieting, etc.).
• Drug intake monitoring and treatment management applications.
• Apps for persons who suffer from a specific illness.
• Interacting with a medical center or clinic using apps. 

The building and testing of healthcare websites is a complicated process that can be difficult for inexperienced developers. Let us look at some challenges.

1. Security and privacy: Laws

All health-related data is kept in strict confidence. Users expect medical applications to be just as safe as financial apps. They must have confidence in the security of their personal information.

Law that regulates the protection of personal health data:

• USA Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act 
• (HIPPA)
• European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 
• The United Kingdom Data Protection Act (DPA)
• California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA)
  

2. Security and privacy: Data encryption and log-in security

Developers should use encryption for both incoming and outgoing data. Make sure your users are comfortable sending and receiving sensitive information like medical files.

3. Multiple devices and channels

Consider the hardware and preferences of your target audience (desktops, tablets, and smartphones). Users’ interactions with each platform may vary.

4. Comprehensive testing

Although careful testing should be undertaken on every application, launching a healthcare solution site without adequate testing might have serious consequences. The repercussions include large monetary fines; for example, HIPAA fines can vary from $100 to $50,000 per infraction.

5. Design and accessibility 

Hitting the wrong CTA on a standard online shop app can lead to the incorrect product being added to the cart. Similarly, erroneous actions in a medical app can lead to inaccurate filling of patient fields, making data entry much more difficult.

6. Maintenance and support

The path of site development does not end with the site’s launch; it continues. When creating a mobile healthcare website, it is essential to consider and prepare for maintenance, support, and scalability.

Also Check: How to Perform Cross-Browser Device Testing

What you should do when encountering issues in your tests

The only approach to overcome this cross-browser testing difficulty is to use a testing solution that has:

1. All the capabilities necessary to automate the process. 
2. The automation tool’s server contains a reliable inventory of browser versions. 
3. It should also keep current with any recent browser changes and include new capabilities. 
4. It should test web apps across several browsers, take high-resolution screenshots, record videos, and more.
5. An example is a prominent solution with all essential features to meet your cross-browser testing requirements.
6. Use a Cloud-based cross-browser testing solution rather than maintaining your own devices. 

Conclusion

UX is a critical factor in deciding a company’s overall success. However, the user experience of a web application is not just determined by its interface. 

With the growing number of operating systems, devices, browsers, and versions, it is critical to examine a site’s or app’s cross-browser compatibility regularly. Some developers consider it to be the final phase in the development of a web app.

Without a doubt, cross-browser testing is a critical yet challenging step. Regardless of how complex the process is, cross-browser testing has a solution for every issue. You may also rest confident that the operation will be speedy and precise if you have a team of professionals on your side.

FAQs

1. What are some of the components included in a proper strategy for a healthcare website?

Some of the key aspects for building a successful strategy for a healthcare website are:

• Compliance and security validations
• Website user experience, load time, and performance
• Web API testing
• Cross-browser interoperability testing
• Content validation per target personas

2. How does outdated browser detection come up as a challenge in cross-browser testing?

As browsers contain technology to optimize output, it results in much lesser consumption. In certain scenarios that involve using an old browser, it is plausible that Javascript has failed to detect the browser. This cross-browser compatibility issue occurs because of obsolete Javascript.

3. How can you resolve the issue of missing CSS resets in cross-browser testing?

To resolve the drawback of missing CSS resets, it requires the websites rendered to be reset to the same basics. Developers can leverage CSS reset style sheets to fulfill this requirement and add the style sheet to ensure that layout design issues are prevented.

4. What are some primary reasons for the need for comprehensive testing in the healthcare sector?

The key reasons that make testing a mandate for the healthcare sector are: 

• Device interoperability: As the devices and apps in the healthcare field need to interoperate to offer the expected user experience, along with robust security, data privacy, and compliances, rigorous testing and effective test execution plan are a must.

• Application security: This is crucial to ensure the prevention of any breaches and data leaks to protect sensitive patient data. Penetration testing can assist in making the system hack-proof, reliable, and sustainable. Further, checking the application for HIPAA compliance is significantly vital.