University Web Services
Best Practices
Testing and Validation
You are never done with testing. It's not as if you can test once, pass, and then not worry about it. In theory, every time a page is updated it should be tested again. That's obviously not practical, but it should serve as a reminder that testing needs to be revisited from time to time.
Content Check
Check spelling and grammar, both visually and electronically. You can check both electronically by copying the content into a word processing program or other checker. Ultimately, however, the responsibility is yours. If you are unsure of your spelling and grammar, have someone else check for you.
Have someone else read your content. You can also read it aloud. Reading aloud is an especially effective way to catch clumsy phrasing, ambiguities, and outright contradictions in the text.
Invite feedback on important material such as instructions or explanations. Make the invitation explicit: the email link at the bottom of the page is not enough.
Usability Testing
Have someone not familiar with the site perform a set of tasks. You are looking for feedback on navigation and finding. Also have them fill out any forms at your site.
This is a topic that can become complex fairly quickly. Check the Resources page for links to sites with more information on usability testing.
Compliance Testing
Pages should validate to XHTML n.n Strict or XHTML 1.0 Transitional is acceptable if there is some reason Strict cannot be achieved. You can validate your pages by using the W3C HTML Validator.
Stylesheets should validate to CSS2. You can validate stylesheets by using the W3C Stylesheet Validator.
All pages must be ADA compliant and must validate to WAI Level 2. You can validate your pages by using the validator at WebAIM, or at Cynthia Says.
Browser Testing
Test all pages across browsers. If a design degrades in a specific browser, either fix it or document it.
When testing pages, be sure to increase/decrease the browser font size and note what happens.
Test pages at different browser window sizes. When small enough, page layout will either break or become difficult to use. The designer must know exactly where that point is in all major browsers.
Here is a testing checklist you can use.