MW08 – Question #3: Pitfalls and process for testing SMS and mobile websites

Question from the audience this week: Could you speak about the multi-device testing process when building mobile sites? Any testing pitfalls with pushing SMS?

Actually that’s two questions, but good ones and easy to answer.

To test how ready your new mobile site is to function across all devices, simply input your test URL here at ready ready.mobi. Getting a 5 out of 5 on their score means you can confidently launch your site knowing it will work on all devices. I personally wouldn’t launch anything that scores less than 4

If you want to test or build for devices specific features or get more testing support, check out mobiforge.com. It’s a great resource.

SMS testing is a different story

Although SMS is a universal feature on mobile devices, testing your SMS programs requires a live shortcode bounded to a platform. Shortcodes are like URLs for mobile… but the process of acquiring them and maintaining them is far more complicated. Learn more at txt.ca.

Chances are you will be hiring a mobile company (or an agency that does mobile) for your SMS needs. They should do all testing and validation for SMS for you. This process requires testing of individual connections between all the carriers bounded to your shortcode.

Be sure to allow for plenty of time for testing – you can’t rush an SMS program out the door. It’s not unusual for it to take 3 months for new shortcodes or at least a few weeks if you are using a shared shortcode