Browser Support? More Like Device Support

What is the definition of browser support these days? It used to be a straightforward definition – supporting web browsers on a desktop machine. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari come to mind. Lately, however, browser support has become more device support. In addition to supporting all the browsers on a desktop machine, mobile devices and tablets have also joined in on the fun.

What kind of a problem does this create? Not having enough time to fully test your own work is nothing new in the advertising world. Instead of supporting desktop browsers on combinations of various operating systems, developers are now required to support mobile and tablet devices as well. On top of styling for these new devices, both landscape and portrait need to be presentable. Logically speaking, that would require more coding, which equates to more time. Another problem might be not having a mockup for the site design on various devices. It greatly reduces time for a developer when all the designs for desktop, tablet and mobile are presented when the project is ready to be coded.

Front-end developers are now taking on more responsibilities than ever. But by working together with designers and user experience architects from the beginning of a project, teams can make sure websites are presentable with minimal differences and bugs across browsers and devices.