When it comes to web testing, web
page or a website application, there are
some general areas that website testing
can focus on to ensure everything
behaves as expected. The following list
includes these areas for testing in no
particular order, as each website owner
will have their own areas of importance:
1. Functionality
This area of website testing should
focus on items such as; does every link
on the website actually work and direct
me to the expected page? If the website
contains a form or application, then not
only can we determine the basic
behavior, but also test items such as
input fields using test techniques such
as Boundary Value Analysis and
Equivalence Partitioning.
2. Payments/e-commerce
Many websites contain products or
services to sell to website visitors.
The most popular methods of payment such
as PayPal and WorldPay will provide
methods of securing customer details
from general view using HTTPS on the
website itself or transferring the user
to a secure site for payment. If a
website contains a shopping cart system
for example, then tests for adding
products to the cart can be used
ensuring that the correct items and
prices are added and totaled correctly.
3. Contact / Support
Information
Probably the most overlooked feature
of a website is how easy it is for a
user to contact the website owners to
ask questions. In the past, website
owners would commonly place an email
link on the webpage which a user can
click to launch their default e-mail
client. We can easily test this
functionality and ensure that the email
address is correct and any associated
email fields passed onto the e-mail
client/program. Recently, 'chat'
programs have been used to provide
real-time communication between website
owners and end users. Again, web testing
can be used for basic functionality
tests and also browser compatibility and
stress/load testing too.
4. Browser Compatibility
In the past virtually everyone used
Internet Explorer. Nowadays, internet
users have a choice such as using
FireFox, Internet Explorer and Safari
for Macs etc. Common mistakes are made
during website design as to the
different behavior expected between
browsers and not only are there cosmetic
differences but also functional
behavior. An example of this is how IE
and FireFox handle 'white space', making
a website appear completely different on
each browser. Therefore, it is important
that a website is tested on at least IE
and FireFox(currently the most popular
browsers) to ensure some kind of test
coverage before a website goes live.
Another aspect is to consider mobile
phones trying to access the website.
5.
Internationalization/Localization
Many websites aim to reach global
markets but little or no thought has
gone into their website design to
accomplish this task. Firstly, web
testing can be performed on different
language operating systems. Secondly,
and a much more affordable method is to
change the language setting of an
operating system. Also, we can change
the localization setting to provide a
more through test. For example, some web
applications may only accept a decimal
point when dealing with currencies. But
in Spain for example, a comma is used
instead. These country and cultural
differences must be considered and
website tested if the goal is to
successfully obtain a global internet
presence.
6. Security
The first thing that springs to mind
when considering a websites security is
when dealing with credit cards. However,
most credit card processing services
will offer a pre-built mechanism for
dealing with credit card details, and
this is often passed over to those
companies and so the headache of keeping
this type of information secure is no
longer in the hands of the website
owner. However, many websites contain
forms for a user to fill-in which can
then be stored on the website somewhere
or in an external database. Careful
consideration and subsequent testing
should be performed to ensure that it is
not possible for someone to gain access
to this information. Due to the
potentially high expertise necessary to
perform this type of testing, many
companies will outsource this kind of
testing to a specialist.
7. Usability
A website must achieve its goal. This
is where 'Usability Testing' comes into
play. Often this can be achieved by
pretending to be a typical user of the
website or service and going through
scenarios on the website making notes as
to how the website functions, thus
giving an impression of how a real user
would feel about using the website.
Information such as the layout,
performance and even color schemes can
be gained by exercising this kind of
website testing.
8. Stress/Load
What happens to the website when a
thousand users visit the website. This
can be tested by real web testers (if
you can find that many free) or by using
specialized third-party software and
services. What we are looking for here
is; does the website still function
correctly? and is the website still
operating at a level where it is not
annoying to the end user? A user does
not want to have to wait 30 seconds for
a page to load!
9. Search Engine Optimization
Organic listings in search engines is
extremely important from a business
perspective, as being placed higher than
a competitor can be extremely
advantageous. There are many different
areas within a website that can be
enhanced to assist with a search engine
ranking including, keyword density,
meta-tags and sitemaps etc. This
information can actually be tested via
web testing and there are several free
third-party tools which quickly measure
keyword density for example which allows
testers to identify too many or too
little amounts of relevant keywords on a
web page for example.
10. Appearance
An extension of usability testing is
the appearance of a website. Most
newcomers will instantly make up their
minds about a website in the first five
seconds of seeing it. If the design is
not right, the user (often a potential
customer) will just leave. Items such as
formatting can checked, for example, the
text is of a consistent size and color
and that there are no typos on the
website. We can also check the alignment
of text and any pictures to ensure a
consistent look and feel on the website.
Also, a websites color-scheme can
instantly decide whether or not the user
is going to stay and look around the
site. Although, most of website testing
of the appearance of a website is simply
an 'opinion', we can simply ask several
testers their opinion which will provide
a general consensus as to whether or not
the websites appearance will be
successful.
