usability

When testing websites, most software testers check the functionality and the UI of the page. But webpage optimization is another area that should get consideration. There are a variety of factors, such as relevance and readability, that search engines consider in webpages before assigning a position in search results, and testers can help positively influence this ranking by increasing site speed and removing blockers to usability.

Allowing minor defects to be included in releases impacts our customers’ perspective on software professionalism. We’ll never catch every weird, obscure bug, but there are some design elements where they tend to lurk. By focusing our testing efforts on these areas—or at least not neglecting them—we can catch more issues before our customers do.

If you're uncertain about where to focus your testing or what kind of testing you should be doing, look at what your users are telling you. Understanding the analytics of how your customers use your application can help you improve your test efforts. This article explores instances of how this data can inform user interface automation, compatibility testing, and web services tests.

When testing, it's easy to call problems with how you'd use the software out of scope, dismissing them as "-ities," like usability, scalability, or security. Some test teams explicitly carve off all these concerns and say they are only dealing with functional testing. Yet the questions raised by this sort of thinking can lead directly to high value for customers.