What is Quality Assurance in web development? Why website QA is important?

By Roman Berezhnoi January 23, 2019 10.52K views

What is Quality Assurance in web development? Why website QA is important?

Quality Assurance is the important part of professional website development that allows a business owner to get a quality website.

Website QA (Quality Assurance) can be defined as the process of testing a website in order to discover bugs, errors or oversights that may not have been noted during web design and web development before going live.

A website or web app is the business counter for any business that’s done online. As such, it should be a point of elegance and smooth operation. A website might be very intuitive and tastefully made, but it’s going to drive away customers if it doesn’t work as expected or is ridden with irritating bugs.

Website Quality Assurance (QA) ensures that users get a functional user interface and the best user experience when using a web app or website. It examines a website or web application to try and uncover any flaws that might have been overlooked during design and development.

Quality Assurance usually involves:

  1. Requirement testing
  2. Design evaluation
  3. Functionality testing

Quality Assurance and testing are important parts of web development process also for WordPress website development services where F5 Studio’s web developers use custom code and third-party plugins.

Requirement Testing

Requirement testing takes into account the requirements that were expressed by the client as well as other client-approved design documents. The QA tester compiles a list of expectations and requirements and uses them to evaluate the layout, prototype and/or alpha version of a website or web app. Requirement testing is essential throughout the development process to ensure that the project team meets all of their mission objectives.

Design Testing

Design testing looks at the appearance of the web app or website. When testing the design, the QA tester checks whether the look and feel of the web app or website are in line with the proposed design and overall layout. The process of design testing is multi-faceted and includes such activities as browser testing and mobile testing.

Functionality Testing

Functionality testing evaluates both the UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) of a web app or website. It usually is the final step in Quality Assurance testing. It is a rigorous process that ensures that each link, button, form and all the other features are operating as they should. The website or app is tested across various browsers and platforms to ascertain that the end user will have no problems browsing or using the site or app. F5 Studio provides professional UI/UX design services what reduce the likelihood of problems and to allow us create quality websites for a business.

Two hexagons that explaine what is Quality Assurance in two phrases What the company builds and What the users expects

Website Quality Assurance Vs.  Website Usability Testing

Many people, including some web developers, wrongly assume that Quality Assurance and User Testing are one and the same. There’s, however, a difference between the two.

Usability testing is the assessment of how users utilize an experience on a website or web app. It involves:

  • The evaluation of how people really perceive and use the app or website
  • An exploration of the app or site to try and find any unclear or vague points which are likely to confuse a visitor or user.
  • Gathering information about how different users experience the app or website and how those user experiences are different from the intentions of the developer.

Unlike Usability Testing, app QA and website QA are mainly focused on the technical side and not the user. But it is reasonable what usability testing is complementary to Quality Assurance. Consequently, Quality Assurance often incorporates user testing data to provide a more comprehensive result.

Why is Quality Assurance important?

Quality Assurance in the web development process is a prerequisite for any process that is keen on delivering high-quality products. QA testing should be undertaken routinely even after web development is complete. Doing so allows you to continually locate and correct any issues that might crop up within your website or web application. The benefits of routine QA testing are far-reaching and include the following:

Web app and website QA Testing Assures You That Your Web Application or Website Works Perfectly

Needless to say, there’s a need to confirm that something is working correctly before you push it live online. A QA tester uses various testing tools such as Virtual Machines (VMs) to simulate different online interactions with your app or website. In so doing, the QA tester confirms whether or not the product is delivering all the expected functionalities.

Web app and website QA Testing Will Help Improve UX

Quality Assurance measures the usability of an app or website. Usability is in turn directly linked to User Experience (UX). QA, especially when backed by user testing data, will help you find ways to deliver maximum usability and subsequently optimal user experience.

Web app and website QA Testing May Strengthens Your Brand

Five things happen when you give users a product that doesn’t function properly or one that doesn’t work at all:

  1. Users will become frustrated with your product
  2. You will appear inept and/or working with an incompetent team
  3. Your product will be assumed to be of poor quality and not worth buying or interacting with
  4. It will look as though you don’t really value or care about your work
  5. You will eventually lose your customer’s trust and credibility.

Conducting proper quality assurance is thus critical in minimizing all of the above outcomes.

QA Testing Prevents Disasters from Happening

Web developers are human, and they too are predisposed to making mistakes. It is not uncommon for them to make errors when coding. They may also write code that doesn’t work as expected or even one that’s incompatible with some of the technologies being used in your app or website. Some of these mistakes could go unnoticed until one day they cause a catastrophic crash or breach of security and privacy. Proper testing is thus recommended to help reveal some of the critical errors that could potentially cause problems within your web application or website. Certainly, the most significant testing of web app or website is more expencive than common web or user tests. But security, privacy or some functionality errors can ruin a business. So, we recommend you consult F5 Studio web specialists who will help you to make rigt design, web development and save money.

Website QA Checklist

F5 Studio’s QA engineers use an expanded checklist to test websites and web applications. But this QA checklist will be helpfull for business owners or QA beginners.

Validation Testing:

  • Check that all of your web pages contain valid HTML markup.
  • All style and display elements should be removed from HTML pages and contained within CSS.
  • Follow hyperlinks to make sure that they are not broken and that they lead to the desired result.
  • Check text for spelling and grammar errors and for any inaccurate information or “lorem ipsum” (placeholder) text.

Browser Testing:

  • Test the website’s appearance and functionality on multiple browsers, including Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Chrome and Safari, and on multiple versions of those browsers.

Device Testing:

  • Test the website with a variety of displays and screen resolutions, using a variety of devices (including desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones) and on a variety of operating systems (including Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android and iOS).

Input TestingЖ

  • Verify that all “optional” or “required” fields are behaving as desired.
  • Verify that alphanumeric fields can properly handle a wide range of correct and incorrect data, invalid symbols and characters.
  • Verify that date fields accept proper input, that leap years are properly handled.

Bug Testing:

  • Check that data is being saved and retrieved correctly when provided by the user.
  • Verify that the website behaves correctly when the user deletes their cookies during or after their visit.
  • Make sure that the website is not susceptible to attacks such as SQL injections or brute force attacks, and test the website under a simulated denial-of-service attack.
  • Make sure that sensitive data, cookies and passwords are encrypted properly, and use the HTTPS protocol on pages with sensitive information.

Performance Testing:

  • Check that web pages are loading and data is retrieved quickly enough, and stress test the website’s performance during moderate, heavy and peak demand times.
  • Verify that all website images are the appropriate dimensions and resolutions.

Accessibility Testing:

In Summary

QA is crucial and shouldn’t be dismissed during the development lifecycle of websites and web application. It ensures that your product delivers excellent usability, functionality, and performance. It’s thus highly recommended that all web development agencies invest in a QA team that will work hand-in-hand with web developers, designers, and clients in delivering high-quality product and solutions developed from scratch.

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