Issues with Testing Websites

November 9, 2011
By Swetha Reddy

As part of our web design and development practice, we test our implementations. Some clients even hire us to test their implementations. Here are a few thoughts on testing:

  1. When a website has been updated, it is important to check the site in all relevant browsers. Developers who use Firefox or Chrome to develop in may not look at how the site renders in InternetWe often see site that have gone live with browser compatibility bugs.  Most of the browser compatibly issues are easy to fix once identified.  The current IE 9 browser development tool makes it easy to test three versions of IE. A good tool which tests websites in one click will reduce these kinds of errors.
  2. Developers are not typically the best testers. Developers tend to test the parts of the website that they have developed, and can neglect regression testing – checking to make sure none of the changes impact other parts of the site. We use peer testing as the first testing done on any of our implementations.
  3. Not surprisingly, different types of users tend to uncover different type of bugs. Non-technical users can uncover usability issues and other unintuitive design issues which the developers are too accustomed to and so fail to notice.
  4. In our experience, the most common testing issues arise when the website works fine, but there is a mismatch between the developer and the client’s expectations. This can happen even when requirement are definedSpending time up front defining requirements, and circling back to the requirements at multiple stages of the project (wireframes and design) can help to catch and correct this early on. We like to “measure twice, cut once.”