Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. You can run it against any web page, public or requiring authentication. It has audits for performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, SEO and more.
Using the Lighthouse Extension
This extension works on both Chrome and Firefox
To run an audit:
Go to the page you want to audit.
Click Lighthouse
. It should be in the address bar. If not, open the browser's main menu and access it at the top of the menu. After clicking, the Lighthouse menu expands.- When you engage the gear icon, there are multiple options. By default, all options are checked and it will look at mobile rather than desktop.
- For our purposes choose only Accessibility to narrow the results. Choosing mobile or desktop is up to you and depends on how the information will be delivered to users
- When you engage the gear icon, there are multiple options. By default, all options are checked and it will look at mobile rather than desktop.
- Click Generate report. Lighthouse runs its audits against the currently-focused page, then opens up a new tab with a report of the results.
- To save a report go to the far left, engage the three vertical dots and choose Print Expanded and save as a PDF.
Using Lighthouse from Chrome Dev Tools
DevTools is a set of tools that are used primarily by people coding pages. The main advantage of using Lighthouse this way is that the DevTools workflow allows for testing local sites and authenticated pages, while the extension does not.
