The Ultimate Website QA Checklist for Quality Assurance

Curious how you can elevate your project from 'good enough' to 'wow, that's flawless'? Well, brace yourself because we're heading into the world of quality assurance (QA), where the magic of perfecting website design unfolds.

If you're a business owner, your canvas is the digital world. You need more than a splash of creativity to make your masterpiece stand out. Here's where the website quality assurance checklist comes in handy.

It's your secret weapon to ensure that every pixel, click, and scroll on your website works like you envisioned. Sounds too good to be true, right?

It's not! By the end of this blog post, you'll be proficient in creating processes that guarantee your designs work.

We're covering the nitty-gritty of a testing checklist that would make even the most meticulous design team nod in approval. And guess what? We'll also share some wisdom with tips for effective design QA testing and real-world examples where design QA did wonders.

So, are you ready to become a pro at testing, where analytics and precision come together to make perfection?

Key Takeaways of the Design QA Process and UX Considerations

• UX Design testing reviews visual design, functionality, and build
• Implementing comprehensive testing leads to increased code quality and better user experience.
• Real-world examples demonstrate how QA helps all businesses.

Understanding Quality Assurance in Design: The Essentials Of Testing

For app or web design and development, it's important to test software quality. You should test your website or app for mobile devices and desktops alike. If you don't ensure your website performance, you won't know if good quality assurance is present. Your website may need to be faster, showing why testing the speed of your website is important. Or, it may have design issues, outlining that your design agency can make errors. If you want the best website (and we know you do), you must ensure testing is done.

So, what are the key aspects of testing?:

• Check your design service team's execution
• Review micro-interactions
• Check for broken links (functionality testing)
• Review content

Any type of testing done aims to improve the design process, fix things that don't work, and make people love your business when they browse the website.

However, implementing a test isn't always straightforward. Problems like back-and-forth communication between designers and developers can cause bottlenecks in your flow. But you can overcome common web development project issues using tools and techniques.

Let's learn about some tools you can use at each stage of the process during website development and before a website launch.

The Role of QA in Software Development: A Focus on Website Quality Assurance

Design quality assurance in software development aims to help developers deliver great products promptly. It allows them to ensure that the website they are building will pass performance testing.

The ideal time to initiate the process is after the design phase but concurrently with the development phase.

By deploying your website without this extra step, you risk website functions being broken or horrible Google pagespeed results.

So engaging with QA team members saves you money by making your website's needs are met.

Planning tests in the QA process includes:

• Outlining the testing strategy, scope, budget, and deadlines
• Establishing required types and levels of testing
• Determining methods and testing tools for bug detection
• Allocating resources

Combining these ensures you can use your website with ease and that it has the design and specifications you asked for.

Benefits of Implementing a Design Testing Process: Reducing Design Debt and Enhancing Quality

Have you ever tried to buy something on a website to find out the payment gateway couldn't accept your payment? How frustrated were you knowing you couldn't reduce your stress immediately? The melatonin you're trying to buy just isn't working.

No matter your level of frustration, multiply it by 100, and that's how the e-commerce website business owner feels. He just lost a sale, and now he's furious.

You don't want this to happen to you. So, you need the process to confirm when people browse your website and everything functions.

Our example above is an e-commerce store, but it is one use case only for QA benefits. Any business will benefit from it because all businesses need to sell online.

Apart from losing money, you can go into debt, omitting this step. Later, you must hire another team for browser testing to ensure functionality.

So, how can you build a quality control checklist to help you avoid missing sales or going into debt?

Building Your Design QA Checklist: Key Components for Effective Quality Control

Do you know how a checklist helps businesses? Here's what to include when you are making a checklist template:

• Visual elements
• Interactive components
• Responsiveness
• Cross-browser compatibility
• Contact Forms
• Clickable phone numbers

Stress-test all the interactions you want people to take on your website. Does the pop-up not appear after an action has been taken? Aren't you glad you caught it before the developer delivered your site?

See why these critical components are important. They ensure the developer implemented everything you requested and didn't forget anything. Let's see what you should test for each component listed above.

Visual Elements: Ensuring Design Quality and Consistency

Visual elements testing should comprise a large portion of your checklist. These include everything mentioned above and other items like icons in use and your logo.

Check the following when you are reviewing your website or app.

• Consistency: guarantee elements with the same purpose are uniform across website landing pages and app screens
• Color contrast: Is the text easy to read?
• White space: Is your website or app too busy?
• Proper formatting of text and images: Is everything aligned?

If any of the above aren't working as expected, you can take action to remedy this. For example, you may need to resize design files and send them to your developer. Or, you may need to modify colors on your website or app.

Interactive Components: UX and Navigation in the Website During the Testing Phase

Interactive UI elements need to be included in your checklist. Think of quizzes or games people love. You need to assess their functionality, accessibility, and user experience.

Don't forget to review hover effects, how text looks when someone enters a form field, or ease of use when navigating your site or app.

These overlooked elements have important roles. For example, hover effects provide visual feedback.

When testing form fields, we recommend you:

• Test for security vulnerabilities
• Assess the stability and functionality of form fields
• Evaluate visual consistency
• Verify the health of your website's database
• Create test cases that cover all potential issues

Comprehensive functional testing guarantees a developer implements all states for your website's buttons, forms, and other elements. It reduces the probability of inconsistencies or unplanned behaviors.

Responsiveness and Cross-Browser Compatibility: Core Aspects of Website Quality Assurance

People hate it when they open a webpage or app and can't see what they should see. Responsiveness and cross-browser compatibility guarantee your website works as it should across all devices and screen sizes.

An easy way to test this is with the Browser stack. BrowserStack is a cloud-based software testing website and apps. It helps developers know if what they produce is functional across all devices.

It's great to know about responsiveness, but you need to know the screen sizes for testing.

In 2022, the most popular screen sizes for desktops were:

• 1920x1080
• 1366x768
• 1440x900
• 1280x720
• 1280x1024

Conducting exhaustive responsiveness and cross-browser compatibility tests guarantees a user-friendly design that performs optimally across all operating systems and screens.

Tips for Effective Design QA Testing: Utilizing a Comprehensive Process

Now that you know what to include in your checklist, we will tell you the best process to follow so you don't overlook anything.

Collaboration between Designers and Developers

First, you should start with open communication. Teamwork between designers and developers is vital in identifying and resolving issues efficiently.

Often, businesses encounter issues with communication. But being upfront about expectations and your standards of practice will squash these issues.

Here's how to ensure there aren't communication issues:

• Create an environment of open and transparent dialogue
• Build mutual understanding
• Promote collaboration
• Leverage collaborative tools
• Ensure everyone knows your communication procedures

Involving both parties will lead to the following:

• Swift feedback
• Improved coding quality
• Increased productivity in the product development process
• Enhanced user experience

You should focus on communication first because it sets the groundwork for everything that follows.

Utilizing Automated Tools and Manual Testing

All businesses understand the value of automation technology. Employ automated tools and manual testing to guarantee everything works as intended.

The next step should be choosing which automated tools to use.

Some recommended automated tools are:

• BugHerd
• TestRail
• TestRigor
• Katalon Studio
• Selenium
• Functionize
• TestComplete

Automated tools are beneficial in executing repetitive testing tasks, broadening test coverage, reducing human errors, and optimizing efficiency.

But you cannot forget about manual testing. Automation does not cover every possible action a human could take. Utilizing a mix of automated tools and manual testing ensures comprehensive testing of your software development project and its alignment with the highest quality standards.

Prioritizing Issues and Addressing Them Systematically in the Testing Process

Prioritizing issues based on their impact on user experience and addressing them in order is the best approach for quick resolution.

Consider the following when giving an issue priority:

• Risk-based prioritization
• Value-based prioritization
• Urgency-based prioritization
• Feasibility-based prioritization

These approaches help tackle the most important and influential issues first. Assessing priority using these criteria leads to a productive and successful testing process.

When determining the priority of issues, the following factors should be taken into account:

• Severity
• Customer impact
• Time and complexity
• Risk
• Project requirements
• Feedback and emerging issues

A systematic approach to issue resolution offers a well-organized procedure for issue identification and management. Consider everything mentioned in this section to decide how urgent a repair is after website or app deployment. Meanwhile, test all of this before your developer finishes implementation.

Following these guidelines will result in a better overall process in both instances.

Real-World Examples of Design QA in Action

Understanding the process with real-life examples provides you with context. You can understand why and how to implement WA into your workflow with examples you relate to. Three case studies exemplify why you should use such processes in your design project.

Case Study 1: Railway Analytics and Efficiency

Compass lacked a formal quality testing system, leading to subpar testing quality and no automation. After improvements, they established a structured process, developed thorough test cases, and automated tests for UI, APIs, and various platforms.

This overhaul resulted in over 6000 test cases, with more than 40% automated, leading to efficient, high-quality outputs for the railway solution.

The project, spanning four years, integrated advanced tools and technologies, enhancing the overall software functionality.

The process resulted in a robust platform with detailed analytics, enhanced software functionality, and better overall system quality.

Case study 2: Achieving design excellence

A DCMS case study describes a dynamic turnaround in assurance practices, leading to a streamlined and efficient process.

They overhauled their system with advanced tools and automation, increasing the test coverage to 90% of the app and significantly enhancing performance and security.

The strategic shift improved software quality and expedited development, culminating in a successful project launch praised for its robustness and innovation.

Summary

As you can see, the process is a crucial aspect of software development that ensures consistency, functionality, and accessibility.

The process isn't always straightforward, as there are many components. But, following our blog post as a guide, you can create an excellent checklist for your processes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are quality checks for a design?

Quality checks review every aspect of the quality testing process to guarantee it meets standards and provides confidence to management and clients.

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What is a testing checklist?

A checklist is a systematic way of verifying that products or services meet expected quality standards during testing.

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What is the process for design testing?

It's reviewing visual designs, micro-interactions, and copywriting to cross-check the developed design against the initial conception.

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How can collaboration between designers and developers improve the process?

Collaboration among all parties involved is necessary to ensure standards are met. Without it, details are overlooked, and designs aren't implemented as planned. In worst case scenarios, designs look nice, but open deployment fails to be functional.

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What is the significance of using automated tools and manual testing in the design QA process?

Utilizing automated tools and manual testing provides comprehensive coverage of all components. Automation can test quickly, and people can test manually for use cases likely overlooked by automation.