Website Testing
Visitors to an e-commerce website, especially a visitor who has never been in an associated brick-and-mortar store, form their opinions from a first impression of the website and the business behind it completely from what they see on their screen. In the marketing and advertising world, it has been established that a viewer will make a decision on staying or going on within 15 seconds. This standard was first applied to magazine ads and has been extended to websites, since they share many of the visual qualities of ads.
If the visitor decides to stay on the site and see what it offers, the focus of the website shifts to content and function. So, to keep the visitor on the site, how it looks is the hook and that it works is the anchor. Both must work if the site is to be successful. If the site is the only source for the next “must-have” whatever, it may not matter all that much how it looks or functions. However, the moment a competing website appears with the same or similar product, the look and functions of the website suddenly matter.
So what does this have to do with testing? The short answer is everything! Asking a person who is not on the Development Team to look at the landing page of a new website is a form of testing. Launching a website and tracking its hits and use is testing. Exercising all of the functions of the website to see if they work as they should is testing. And intentionally trying to make the website and its functions fail, yes, that is testing too.
In many of the website or software development methodologies, time becomes the measurement of success to the point that it can override some or all of the quality assurance activities, such as the aesthetics and function testing. Because of time constraints, the testing may be limited to ensuring that the site’s prescribed functions work as described in the design documents. Positive testing may satisfy site owners or operators, but untested flaws in the website’s coding or interfaces, may cost them more than a bug fix.
A testing program should always produce a result on which you are willing to sign your name. If you believe that you have exercised the product in every way possible, both reasonable and unreasonable, and the results are positive, you should have no issues with taking the responsibility of saying so. Otherwise, more testing is required.
First Impressions
As discussed, website stickiness (its capability to hold a viewer) starts with a first impression. A magazine article’s headline attracts you to look at the article to see if you wish to read it or move on. In the same way, the visual presented by a website’s landing page, even before it is fully downloaded and displayed, provides the same type of reaction: stay or go. The average time viewers spend on any website is 15 seconds. In that amount of time, the initial visual display and the impression it makes on the viewer are all that is required for the viewer to make his or her decision to stay or go.
There are tests for first impressions. Marketers and advertisers use a “5 second test” to measure what the visitor’s first impressions are after viewing the website for 5 seconds and what information, if any, a visitor takes away from the site. A 5 second test is commonly used to test for first impressions and if an intended message is passed to the visitor. The actual length of the test viewing is relative, but no more than 15 seconds is recommended.
Performing first impression tests requires a group of viewers who are not associated with the design or development project. It is even better if they have never seen the website before. To begin the test, each of the viewers, separately or together in a small group, opens and views the website for the established time period, such as 15 seconds. At the end of the viewing time, the page is replaced with a series of questions, shown one at a time. The questions are something like the following:
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What three words do you remember from the site?
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How do you describe this site?
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What product or service is this site offering?
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What one word describes your impression of this site?
Other questions can be added, if you wish, but remember that you are testing for the viewer's first impression. The results of the test should provide you with answers to questions like:
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What did visitors see?—Identifies the section or object on the site that drew the visitor’s attention.
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What did visitors remember?—Identifies the headings, links, or images that made the first impression on the visitor and how it was interpreted.
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What did visitors believe was the focus of the site?—Identifies how well the site conveyed what the visitor can see, gain, purchase, or learn from the site.
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What one-word description did visitors use?—These one-word answers sum up visitor first impressions.
Fifteen seconds or less may not seem like enough time to critique or analyze a website, especially a website focused on products or services, but this test provides not only how well the site communicates to the viewer, but it also gives insight into the website’s overall user experience (UX).