How to Develop a Testing Strategy for Your Website
Unfortunately there is no way to guarantee that your website will ever be completely fault free. That isn’t an excuse not to spend time testing your own website design though, as many of the mistakes that creep into different pages around the web are avoidable. Take the many different websites that will only work correctly in one internet browser as an example. Had their developers stopped to thoroughly test their websites before launching them to the world such errors may have been avoided. In order to remove as many errors as possible from your own website design follow these steps to create your own thorough testing strategy.
Step one – Test your website yourself
It may sound obvious, but the first step in testing your website is to actually test it yourself. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. As the developer of your website you will need to put yourself in the shoes of your visitors, looking for faults amidst your own creation. Look at every page, push every button, click on every link and enter your details into every contact form. You should be aiming to rip your own website to shreds, breaking it in every possible way at this early stage to prevent your visitors from finding these errors at a later date.
Don’t expect testing your website by yourself to be an interesting process, particularly if your website is large. Clicking on everything that can be clicked on and viewing every page will take some time, but those couple of hours could really stop some problems from sneaking onto your website design.
Step two – Take advantage of online tools
Fortunately testing your website doesn’t have to be something that you do alone; you can also take advantage of a great selection of online tools to help you out. One of the main problems that websites face today is opening successfully in the many different internet browsers available. While you could simply download each of these browsers by yourself to try out your website, this would take a lot of your precious time.
Instead, why not use an online tool that will physically show you what your website looks like in a range of different browsers. Just enter the URL of a page that you want to check and wait for the results to be generated.
Step three – Find real users
There are only so many errors that you and an online toolset can find. For a really thorough job you will also need to find some real users that can test your website for you. These users should be individuals that have not been involved with the development of your website design at all, allowing them to provide you with a fresh perspective.
You could find real life users from anywhere. Why not ask your Facebook or Twitter followers for an honest opinion? Or register for some forums where many developers will offer some advice? You could even go to friends and family members to request their services in snooping around your pages for errors; they are likely to be happy to help.
By asking your real users to offer feedback either via email, through a custom created online form or simply face to face, you will soon learn of any mistakes that have slipped through your fingertips.
Author Note: (The above article has been added to our Website Design Articles section as part of our efforts to help provide our website visitors and customers with an insight into the Logo Design and Website Design industry).
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