Etsy's Device Lab
Article Summary
When mobile traffic jumped from 25% to 40% in six months, Etsy knew they had a problem. Their engineers were testing on personal iPhones while users browsed on dozens of different devices.
Lara Hogan, engineering manager for Etsy's mobile web team, shares how they built a physical device lab with 34 phones, tablets, and devices. This 2013 post details the practical challenges of setting up real-device testing infrastructure.
Key Takeaways
- 34 devices selected based on actual traffic patterns and known problematic models
- Color-coded library cards and washi tape made device checkout scannable
- Power management was the biggest challenge (iPads broke standard USB hubs)
- Adobe Edge Inspect enabled simultaneous testing across multiple devices
- Teams discovered device-specific bugs they'd completely missed during development
Critical Insight
A well-organized physical device lab helped Etsy's teams catch real bugs on actual hardware that emulators and personal devices were missing.
