In this
concluding article on HTML, we discuss few precautions
and checklists that would help you weed out avoidable
mistakes and ensure quality of your web-site.
Whether you design your website yourself
or get it done by a skilled designer/consultant
- as owner of the website you are ultimately responsible
for its success or failure. Website is your face
to the world. Your customers may or may not get
to see your impressive office or ISO-9000 production
facility - but they will certainly see your website
and form a first-hand opinion about your company
from it. And as we all know, first impression
generally lasts the longest.
Amidst technicalities and scripting
jargons, we often forget that real work begins
only after HTML pages are scripted ! Because,
simple mistakes and misspells can convey an extremely
negative image about your company not to talk
of design glitches. The only way you can avoid
such embarrassment is to make sure that your web
pages are properly tested before your customers
view it.
Testing involves everything from
spell-checking your content to tracing each and
every link on each individual page to make sure
that all the pieces hook together properly.
Once you have checked your work to
make sure its mechanically correct and accurate,
you need to make sure that your content is being
properly communicated. That means interacting
with knowledgeable persons within and outside
your organization, potential customers etc., soliciting
their feedback and then acting on what they have
to say.
Following steps guide you through
few essential but simple tests that your web pages
must go through (there might be more tests required
for your particular application).
-
Run it through spell-checker
- Avoid most commonly occurring silly mistakes
-
Check the grammar and readability.
- MS-Word has a very useful feature for checking
readability. It even allots readability statistics
for comparison.
-
Test the relative links in the
page from your own computer
-
Run the page through at least
two browsers (e.g. Netscape and Internet Explorer)
and at least two different display resolutions.
Your pages should behave in a uniform manner
under different browsers and screen resolutions.
-
Upload the pages in your web-server
and check loading time, outside links and
server side applications (CGI, Forms, BBS
etc.)
-
Submit the page's URL to an
online HTML validation service. Some of the
popular validation services are:
NetMechanic
Website
Garage
-
Show the pages to a select knowledgeable
user-group. Solicit feedback and act on what
they say.
You may ask 'Why spend so much time
in testing ? It's delaying the project' The answer,
in a word, is quality. If you want quality web
pages, capable of creating positive impression
about your organization, testing is a crucial
ingredient.
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