Catching Mistakes: Using QA to Address Problems on your Web Site

Facilitators

Marieke Guy (UKOLN) and Anne McCombe (MIMAS).

Abstract

Quality and reliability are two of the most critical aspects of any Web site. Yet there are so many problem areas for Web site builders to stumble on from human error in page creation to browser consideration and accessibility issues. Ensuring that these concerns are addressed takes time and effort. This workshop will discuss Quality Assurance procedures for Web sites. Participants will be asked to consider what can go wrong on their Web site, why exactly things are going wrong, how Web site owners can find out when things go wrong and finally what can be done when things have gone wrong. In this session we will consider how you can integrate important QA aspects, like testing, into your current evaluation procedures and in doing so significantly improve your Web site, its infrastructure and content.

Learning Objectives

Quality is an important part of any Web site. This event will:

Consider what exactly quality and Quality Assurance are in the context of a Web site
Consider how QA processes can be built into our general workflow.

Target Audience

The event is suitable for all delegates.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the seminar participants will:

Be aware of how QA fits into a Web site.
Be shown a best practice case study of how the MIMAS Web site monitors accessibility and considers its difficulties and challenges.
Learn about what can fail on a Web site and what type of testing needs to be done to prevent, track and solve problems and the issues they raise.
Be given an overview of a number of different areas which will help provide a context for further readings.
Realise that QA is formalising what you should already be doing to your Web site!

Materials

Slides

Presentation 1: Introduction: [HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]
Presentation 2: Catching Mistakes: What can go wrong with your Web site?: [HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]
Presentation 3: Introduction to Quality and its Importance: [HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]
Presentation 4: QA for MIMAS: A Case Study: [HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]
Presentation 5: The QA Focus Perspective: [HTML format] - [MS PowerPoint 97/2000 format]

Handouts

Exercises: Exercise 1 [MS Word format] - Exercise 2 [MS Word format]
Briefing Papers: Compliance with HTML Standards [MS Word format]
Accessibility Testing [MS Word format]
Approaches To Link Checking [MS Word format]
How To Evaluate A Web Site's Accessibility Level [MS Word format]

Timetable

The timetable for the workshop is given below.

Time	Topic	Comments
16:00	Introduction to the Workshop	Presentation 1: Introduction - MG
16:00 - 16:20	Catching Mistakes: What can go wrong with your Web site?	Exercise 1: Catching Mistakes - MG Report back - MG
16:20 - 16:25	Catching Mistakes: What can go wrong with your Web site?	Presentation 2: Catching Mistakes: What can go wrong with your Web site? - MG
16:25 - 16:30	Introduction to Quality and its Importance	Presentation 3: Introduction to Quality and its Importance - MG
16:30 - 16:50	QA for MIMAS: A Case Study	Presentation 4: QA for MIMAS: A Case Study - AM
16:50 - 17:10	QA Approaches to Identified Problems	Exercise 2: QA Approaches to Identified Problems - MG Report back - MG
17:10 - 17:25	The QA Focus Perspective	Presentation 5: The QA Focus Perspective - MG
17:25 - 17:30	Final Feedback and Discussion	Final Feedback and Discussion - MG and AM