Testing

• Low-fidelity prototypes can be tested before they are developed into a finished product.
• There are several ways in which they can be tested.

• Usability testing is about testing the user experience (UX)
• Websites are tested in terms of how easy they are to use and whether it achieves the original goals or not.
• Usability testing starts right at the very beginning of the development cycle with the wireframe. A set of users are tested in carrying out specific instructions.

• Personas are made-up users who represent a user base or a user group who will be using the website.
• Often the personas will influence the developers to think what the fictitious user might need on the website.
• Personas, also mentioned back in the Analysis stage, should be created before the Design stage but should be used as the basis of testing as well. 

• These are a series of instructions that testers must carry out
• They are created from the original requirements
• If a tester cannot complete a task, the developer can clearly see why they can't (for example, it might be a usability issue or it might be a link doesn't actually exist)

• These are like test cases, except they do not have a series of instructions are more open-ended.
• In this case, open-ended means that there are several way of completing the task.

Order 3 bags of flour and next-day delivery. Ensure that the delivery person knows to put the flour in the mill.

• When a website is fully implemented it goes through rigorous testing
• Because a website is front-facing and anyone can view and use it, some web developers keep a development and live version separate, meaning if they wish to apply changes they do so on the development website and test it over and over.
• Testing a website (at Higher) involves:
  • Testing input validation
  • Testing a navigation bar
  • Ensuring that media content displays and works properly

• When a website is fully implemented it goes through rigorous testing
• Because a website is front-facing and anyone can view and use it, some web developers keep a development and live version separate, meaning if they wish to apply changes they do so on the development website and test it over and over.
• Testing a website (at Higher) involves:
  • Testing input validation
  • Testing a navigation bar
  • Ensuring that media content displays and works properly

• There are four types of input validation that can be checked:
  • Presence check (the use of required on a form element ensures that it has a value when submitted)
  • Length check (testing the length of an input field to ensure that the length of the text submitted matches the requirements)
  • Range check (ensuring that a numeric value is within the range specified in the requirements)
  • Restricted choice check (ensuring that the value the user entered is within a set of inputs, using a <select> element)

• Testing navigation of the website involves testing that each link works (there are tools out there that do this)
• Checking for orphan pages (pages that do not link to any other pages)
• Identifying broken internal links is often harder than identifying broken external links on a website that has a consistent layout. Can you think why?

• It's also very important to test the different forms of media on a website.
• Images need to load, animations need to play and audio and video files need to load correctly and play properly.
• It's also important to ensure that the media appears in the correct location on the page, as outlined in the original wireframe.

• Compatibility testing is used to ensure that a webpage or website performs well on several different platforms. There are so many platforms that it becomes difficult to test on them all, but you can carry out general testing across a range of devices and browsers.
• Responsive web design (RWD) is one of the most fundamental changes to website design that involves developing for a range of different devices (it's what makes web design so fun!)
• Older browsers such as Internet Explorer 8 were absolutely awful in terms of JavaScript performance, memory usage and CSS compatibility.