Webmaster Resources

Testing Your Web Site

You've designed a web site and uploaded it to your web server. Within minutes your customer calls complaining that the page looks skewed, the content is in disarray, text is overlapping and the navigation isn't working. What did you do wrong??

Chances are you didn't do a thorough test of your site or site pages before FTPing it. Your should ask yourself the following questions;

Did I test the site across various platforms?
Did I test the site across different browsers?
Did I test the site at various resolutions?
Did I test across different connection types?

Designers tend to have fast computers, large monitors and tend to design at high resolutions. In the design process, you need to consider your client and client audience. If you are designing a site for a "high end" product such as a Ferrari or BMW, your customer base most likely has an above average income level, a newer model PC with a large monitor, newer browser version and various plug-ins. Conversely, if you are designing a site for school teachers, consider the school budget, teachers salaries in the community and factor those considerations into your design and layout.

Test your site on both a PC and a MAC. Test it on several computers with different configurations. Adjust the resolution. (On your desktop, right click and select Properties). How does your site look at 800x600. How about 1024x768? Should you consider WebTV?
Microsoft offers a Web TV viewer. Check out http://developer.msntv.com
Test at higher resolutions as well.

Test your site across various Browsers. While you can only load one version of Internet Explorer on your PC, you should be able to download various versions of Netscape in different folders. Don't forget Opera at http://www.opera.com and Firebird, which is growing in popularity at http://www.mozilla.org, Don't forget Apple's Safari Browser, located at http://www.apple.com/safari. Also view your site in at least one text-only browser. Not everyone uses Microsoft Windows. For a Lynx browser, go to http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html.

Consider page download time. Many web editors provide you with page file size and download times. Consider how fast or slow your page will be accessed at 28.8 Vs 56K Vs DSL, Cable Modem or T1. Your audience shouldn't wait more than a few seconds for a page to download. Optimize photos and images. Consider using tiling backgrounds to minimize image size. Utilize style sheets to lighten the file size of your HTML content.

Testing your web pages on multiple platforms, browsers, resolutions and connection types will allow you to view your pages the same as your viewing audience. Don't compromise on this important step in the web development process.