The Functionality of the Web Test Scorecard

Jan 16
09:58

2009

Sam Miller

Sam Miller

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Many factors are to be considered when testing the functionality of a website. Having a web test scorecard handy should make this endeavor easier for any web designer.

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Just what do you first notice about any website you visit on the Internet? Surely your answer would range amongst the many facets of web design and development that the website would hold. Perhaps it is its layout that catches your eyes? The fancy graphic images and videos or audio files you can access? Or perhaps it is the simplicity of a website that grabs your attention? All these aspects and more are part of what is known as the GUI or graphic user interface. For webmasters and web designers to ensure the success of this GUI,The Functionality of the Web Test Scorecard Articles a web test scorecard should then be primarily used.

GUI is primarily used and developed so as to give due control to users. In the case of web design and development, control would be in the form of the ease and convenience the users would have when the GUI responds to whatever commands they give. Thus, the first goal of any web testing scorecard would be in establishing premium quality of the website’s GUI. Moreover, the scorecard should be used to determine whether or not the GUI provided by a website is indeed what its users and visitors would like to get their hands on themselves, and this is done with the use of the relevant web technology we have streaming all over the arena right now.

The homepage is the primary landing page of any visitor and should then be given due attention. The main things to remember here are accessibility and navigability. Your homepage should give easy access to all of the web pages hidden in your website, no matter how far they are burrowed within, as well as make it easy for your users and visitors to navigate their way through all your links so that they can find the information they are looking for. A number of questions should then be asked when developing your scorecard for this. You need to ask yourself, just how do your visitors get to your homepage? Are your menus outlined in such a way that they provide easy navigation? How about the overall construction of your homepage? Does it encourage the dropping by of more visitors? Technically, if you are the web designer, you would certainly have biased answers to these questions because this is your work, after all. Having a scorecard answer those questions is the wise thing to do because through this, you are sure to have unbiased answers to begin with.

Make sure to have direct links to all of the pages embedded inside your website when you are still in the process of constructing it. The ideal GUI will have present all the links that enable searchers to go back to the homepage. Without these links, the visitors would be left stagnant on whatever page they find themselves in, and this is something no web designer would want for a website. Moreover, make sure to incorporate direct links to all of the other pages and sections found in your website.

Your web test scorecard can also be used in determining interface speed. Studies show that most visitors give about 10 seconds leeway time for all graphics and such to show up on the website. If your website is overly laden with graphics and they take more than 10 seconds to show up, you just might lose your visitors. Keeping all these and more in mind, you should realize by now the important role this scorecard plays in the success of your website.