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Testing Your Site. Design. Prototype. Evaluate. Is it what the user wants?. No. Testing Your Site. Errors are good!. If you create a system and tell me that you tested it and found no problems I simply won’t believe you
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Design Prototype Evaluate Is it what the user wants? No Testing Your Site
Errors are good! • If you create a system and tell me that you tested it and found no problems I simply won’t believe you • In documenting your testing I expect you to state clearly what errors you found and what you did about them in your test logs
When to Test • Formative testing • Testing during development • Summative testing • Testing after development • Imagine a chef making soup • The formative stage is the chef tasting the soup as they make it • The summative phase is when the customer tastes it
Why do we test? • To find faults or errors with the code • Establish accessibility • Understand the level of usability • We need to have our designs viewed through fresh eyes to see the things that are hard to see ourselves
What do we test? • For the sake of this lecture I shall split testing into three types • System testing • Accessibility testing • Usability testing
System Testing • You will need to consider issues such as the following • Is your code correct? Validation – broken links • Does your design work on different browsers? • Does your design work at different screen resolutions? • How does your design behave on different computer platforms?
Is your code correct? • Tools in DreamWeaver • Validate your XHTML by pressing Shift + F6 • Link checker shift F8 (ctrl F8 for the site) • Test your links on a friends machine! • Clean up XHTML • Site Reports • Spell Check (Set to British not American)
Platform Tests • Different browsers. (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera) • Different Screen Resolutions (Design for liquid layout, use percentage values in positioning) • Different operating systems? (PC, MAC, Unix)
Browsers • Browser usage for the faculty dated 19th Oct 2008
Browser Wars • Early 1990s and following • Netscape • Internet Explorer (Given away for free) • The marquee tag – Microsoft only tag • Need for CSS – XHTML not good for layout • World Wide Web Consortium http://www.w3.org
Resolution Testing • At least change the browser window size • Change the resolution on your machine
Accessibility • Some questions • Do all of your images have an alt tag? • Does your site work without the colours? (Rename your style sheet to test this.) • Can you still navigate your site if flash doesn’t work?
Usability Testing • Usability may be defined by the following questions • How easy is the site to learn? • How quickly are tasks performed? • How easy is it to remember how to use the site? • How many errors does a user make? • Is the user satisfied with the experience?
Usability Testing • Who to use? • How many test subjects?
Approaches to Testing • Focus Groups • Testing the Paper Based Design • Card Sorting • Design an Experiment • Planning Test Scenarios • Give the subjects a specific task • Avoid Polluting the Test
User Centred Design We shall look at: • Considering your intended audience • Use of fonts • Selecting graphics • Other issues relating to your design
Design Process so far We looked at: • Creating a paper based design • Creating storyboards • Creating a wireframe model of your site
Design Prototype Evaluate Is it what the user wants? No Q. How do you know if the design of your site is correct? • A. By seeking input from the client and potential users at each stage of the design process
Generic User Characterisations • We may make this process more efficient by working out what we know / don't know about our potential users • Tool Preference • Physical Differences • “Cultural” Differences
Tool Preference do the users know how to – • Use a query language? • Frames? • Pop up windows?
Physical Differences • Physical disabilities • Colour perception • Visibility of small type – Age? • Small children lack fine motor control
“Cultural” Differences • Nationality Date format: 10/2/05 0r 10/2/05??? • Education research student v “Joe Public” • Profession – e.g. Default means different things to bankers and programmers!
How might you organise a web site? Group cookery recipes by: • country? • foodstuff? • chronology? Group cookery magazines by: • country? • foodstuff? • chronology
Contents may be organised by: • Topic e.g. Yell.com (Yellow pages.) • Following the sequence of task the user must follow. e.g. On-line registration process. • Specific needs of the user e.g. personal v business banking. • By means of a metaphor.