Engine
Facts before opinions
We do not know yet how human virtual customers are. So we keep what the browser reports first: errors, broken images and links, accessibility, speed, and the conditions we really applied.
The Prefly team · 1 min read
“It looked confusing” can be wrong. “The request failed with 422” cannot. A virtual customer’s judgment is an opinion until it is checked against real people. What the browser reports is true whoever the customer is. So the new features start with collecting facts.
What each step keeps
- Errors behind the screen and failed requests: the browser log for that step
- Broken images and links: the site is crawled once before the test to map its links
- Accessibility: an axe-core check on every screen
- Speed: how long each screen took to render
Conditions, applied for real
“Uses a slow connection” is no longer a line in a bio. It is a condition applied to the customer’s Chrome.
- Network: fast 4G, slow 4G, slow 3G
- CPU: 4x or 6x slower
- Font size: 150%, 200%
- Language and time zone: Seoul, Tokyo, New York and more
- Screen: laptop, tablet, phone (with touch and mobile browser hints)
