Tom MorrisMay 30, 2023

Any meaningful UX testing in 2023 needs to account for ad blockers and password managers.

If your site or app doesn’t work with popular ad blockers, or it refuses to allow logins pasted in from password managers, it’s broken.

Yes, some executive type will want to argue about this because they think ad blocking will go away or they misunderstood some now outdated infosec guidance. They’re wrong. Users use ad blockers and password managers and if your stuff doesn’t work with them, it’s broken.

Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEMay 31, 2023

@tommorris Once Upon A Time there was a thing called "zonealarm" which took it upon itself to remove the "ADVERTISE" button when it displayed my web site to its users (aka victims).

Hence endless conversations along the lines of:

"So how do I actually place an advertisement on your advertising web site?"

"Press the ADVERTISE button and fill in the form."

"What ADVERTISE button?"

I do *not* consider that it was my duty to code around this "zonealarm" malware, so I'm going to disagree with you.

Show threadEleanor SaittaJun 2, 2023

@TimWardCam
Cool. But don't complain when you site breaks because your users are protecting themselves.

Also? "This one time a single user tool broke something it shouldn't have and now I'm to try to punish all users using similar tools forever" is a bad look.
@tommorris

Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEJun 2, 2023

@dymaxion @tommorris There are thousands of tools out there. I'm supposed to buy subscriptions to all of them, and the platforms they run on, and test with everything once a week? For a free public service I provide?

Meanwhile, back in the real world ...

Show threadEleanor Saitta
@TimWardCam
No. But you should probably test periodically with the most popular half dozen and be aware of the development patterns that are likely to become fragile around them and code with the understanding that the site should still function if remote resources likely to be blocked aren't available. Aka, the way professional devs are expected to. But you do you.
@tommorris
Jun 2, 2023 at 9:44amWeb
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEJun 2, 2023

@dymaxion @tommorris How much does an iPhone cost?

It's a free public service. If it works for almost everybody who tries to use it, great. If someone complains that it's not working for them, I investigate.

Show threadTom MorrisJun 2, 2023

@TimWardCam @dymaxion My intended suggestion was “if you are testing on a device, test with a popular adblocker installed (as quite a lot of users will have one)” not “extend testing scope beyond practicality”. The target of my post was professionals working on commercial projects with resources to test with and an expectation or obligation to test across multiple devices.

uBlock Origin with the default settings is free and available for most popular desktop browsers.