2026-01-30
Scrutinizer v1.5: Mobile Emulation & Academic Tooling
v1.5.0 release notes →Most web content is consumed on phones. Most usability testing tools assume desktops. v1.5 bridges that gap with device-accurate mobile emulation — viewport locking, DPI simulation, user-agent switching — so peripheral vision simulation runs against what users actually see. The release also introduces tools for academic reproducibility: citation-embedded screenshots and a declarative mode registry.
Highlights
- Mobile Emulation Mode — Device profiles (iPhone 14 Pro, Pixel 7 Pro, iPad Air, Galaxy S23 Ultra) with viewport locking, high-DPI scale factors, and UA override. Sites load their actual mobile layouts.
- Touch Simulation (Alpha) — Hold Option+Click to synthesize touch events in mobile mode. Unblocks testing of touch-only interactions under foveated rendering.
- Citation-Ready Exports — Golden capture PNGs now embed metadata
(version, mode, foveal radius, intensity) for academic reproducibility. Extract with
exiftool. - Declarative Mode Registry — Aesthetic modes defined in
shared/modes.json. Researchers can add custom simulation parameters without modifying the codebase. - Auto-Updates — Checks GitHub releases on startup and notifies when a new version is available.
Why mobile matters for peripheral vision
On a phone held at arm's length, the entire screen subtends roughly 15–20° of visual angle. Most content is parafoveal, not far-peripheral. The simulation parameters that produce dramatic effects on a 27″ monitor need recalibration for a 6.1″ screen — the biology doesn't change, but the geometry does.
Links: GitHub · Full changelog · v1.5.0 release