Website User Testing

User Testing is a method used in many business settings to assure that their product is easily usable by their target audience. Our focus here is to confirm that our websites are accessible, easy to navigate and secure. User Testing is a way to find the problems or coding bugs which may prevent us from reaching that goal.

There are a number of ways to perform this type of testing, although the type of product can determine which type of testing is most appropriate. A standard test is to have testers, who are not involved with the development of the product, actually use the product and give their feedback. Although an initial step for a web developer would be to utilize the W3C Markup and CSS validators to verify the syntax and test links and forms. However, this will not take the testing far enough as a good website would need to be tested for many other factors. These usually include:

• Documentation Testing
• Functionality Testing
• Usability Testing
• Interface Testing
• Database Testing
• Compatibililty Testing
• Performance Testing
• Security Testing
• Crowd Testing
• Mobile-friendly Testing

As the testing for a website is so comprehensive, many developers out-source their user testing. There are a number of companies who specialize in this area such as hotjar. In fact, in doing my on-line research a number of hits came up from companies offering job opportunities to do website user testing at home!

In order to underscore how involved testing a website can be is to look further at the parameter of Compatibility Testing. This is to ensure that the website displays correctly on different devices. Different browsers and operating systems will not render the different elements on the site consistently.

There are a number of options available to accomplish this. One could try running a number of browsers on their own computer or have multiple computers all running different systems. Since that is unpractical luckily there are better options available. There are on-line browser compatibility testing tools, which can be either free or usually for a fee e.g. Sauce Labs, TestingBot; browser emulators and simulators; utilizing a virtual machine program or a cloud based testing service.

In conclusion, a high-quality website requires consideration of and attention to a great number of details. Although there are many tools available to a developer, it may make sense to use an outside testing source for some of the parameters that need to undergo testing.