Website usability testing

It’s important to make sure that your website is user-friendly and easy to navigate, so usability testing is a crucial step in the development process. 

Usability testing involves measuring how easily a user can accomplish a series of tasks. It can help you understand how real users interact with your website and provide valuable insights into the overall user experience. 

You recruit participants from your target audience to carry out usability tests and make improvements based on the results.

There are different testing methods you can use depending on what you want to gain insights on. You can read more about these methods in our usability testing guide and we dig into how you can get started with website usability testing in more detail below.

Functionality testing

Functionality testing is one of the most crucial forms of website testing. As you’d expect by the name, it verifies that your website works as expected. This includes testing various elements like forms, redirects, error messages, database submissions, and email links. 

This type of testing ensures that your website or web application is running smoothly and correctly, and that users can complete any intended actions without glitches.

Performance testing

Slow page load speeds can have a negative impact on user experience, so it’s important to test the performance of your site. This helps you check everything works optimally under all loads, and provides a picture of load times and any potential issues that may arise. 

There are various performance tests you can run, like load tests, stress tests, and spike tests:

• Load testing checks the behavior of your website under a specific expected load.

• Stress testing tries to break your website by incrementally increasing the number of users.

• Spike testing checks your website’s response to a continuous expected load. 

Performance testing also evaluates site speed, image loading, and compatibility across multiple browsers, platforms, and devices.

Compatibility testing

Compatibility testing ensures your website or web application works across different browsers, devices, and operating systems. 

Compatibility testing should include checking for compatibility across mobile devices, screen sizes, operating systems (e.g. Windows, Linux, and Mac), and various browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Security testing

Security testing is one of the most important aspects of website testing, as it ensures that your website is built to withstand any hacking attempts or data breaches. This type of testing helps you identify potential loopholes and threats, comply with laws that regulate web data security and privacy policies, and plan responses to future breaches or hacking attempts. 

Accessibility testing

Accessibility testing ensures that your website is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. This type of testing also verifies that your website complies with accessibility standards and guidelines, and that users can access and use all features without barriers.

Localization testing

Localization testing helps you check your website is accessible to a global audience and caters to different linguistic, technical, and visual requirements. 

This type of testing covers aspects such as dialects, special characters, contact information, address formats, and website availability across different locations. It helps you to understand if your website needs any modifications to accommodate the needs of users in different countries and regions.

Interface testing

Interface testing verifies the functionality of the application, web, and database servers. This type of testing checks if the communication between these servers works as expected, and if any errors or glitches arise during the exchange of information.

Payment testing

Payment testing is especially important for e-commerce stores – it makes sure that customers can complete their purchases regardless of their location, browser, or device. 

This type of testing verifies that payment options work seamlessly across multiple devices and platforms, and that appropriate payment options are available for specific locations. It also evaluates the overall user experience of the payment process.