Testing your website
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When you create a new website for your business it has typically been a creative process and very aesthetically driven. The creation part of the process actually only takes your new website to 85% complete, its the testing of the website properly that takes it from 85% to 95% complete (its never 100% complete, there is always more to do).
Not going through a proper test cycle on your new website is a real false economy. Getting the site live and taking revenue is the best thing possible right? No. A website with problems is not going to help your business and is going to have a negative impact in terms of customer service and customer satisfaction.
Here are my top tips for getting through the test cycle on your new website:
[1] Know the audience. Make sure you know who the audience is, the demographic they are part of and what level of expertise they in terms of using websites and other digital tools. You need to look at the website from their point of view, not yours.
[2] First impression is vital. The first time you look at something it has the most impact on you. Make sure you note everything you see that's wrong the first time. As you keep looking at it you tend to get more accepting. Be uber critical and note down everything first time around.
[3] Review the complete site. Don't skimp on checking every page - even if you think that nothing has changed since the last time you looked. Changes on one part of the site can effect others so you need to check and recheck every page.
[4] Use complex inputs. Wherever you have an input box you can never assume that the target user will try and put the right data into it. So if you have a box where you expect the user to put their name, try putting numbers in, or a URL for a youtube video. Your developer can make it so that these inputs are not valid but you need to test all inputs in this way.
[5] Exceed all limits. If your website allows 100 characters in an input box, make sure you always try and enter more than the maximum allowed.
[6] Internationalise. With the possibility of international visitors to your site, you need to check that they can also use the site as intended. This means checking that your site can handle different time zones. Can a user add a phone number with the country code prefix? Can the user enter their name using accented characters or special characters without breaking the site?
[7] Avoid short-cuts. There are plenty of automated tools and services now for checking websites but I think they are a false economy. They often don't pick up all the problems which means you have to go back and check certain things manually anyway. Trying to save time like this rarely saves you as much as you would like.
[8] Keep moving. Try going back and forth repeatedly between sections and pages. The constant move back and forth and the repeated clicking on the same thing - even when it isn't doing anything can often highlight both bugs and performance issues with your site.
Here are some links to articles that are useful if your testing your website:
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