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Test your
site
Remember, it's not for your eyes,
only |
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| Just because your site looks good
in your browser doesn't mean it's ready for everyone
else. What other people experience will depend on which
browser they're using, what fonts they have, their connection
speed to the Internet, and a lot of other factors that aren't
usually in your control. Before making your site live, you can
anticipate a lot of these differences and prevent major
problems from slipping your notice by running your site
through some thorough tests. |
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Preview as you build
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| You can test your
site to some extent as you build it, by previewing. NetObjects
Fusion has a handy little tab in Page view that shows what the
current page looks like in Internet Explorer 4.01 or higher.
To preview the entire site and test navigation in your
desktop's browser, click the Preview button on the Control bar
at the top right of the window.
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| Page Preview tab
previews the current page. |
Preview Button
previews the entire
site. |
To test components, which don't work when you preview, you
should instead publish your site locally to My
Computer, as
described below. |
Set
options for previewing your site, such as which browser to
use, its windows size, and more. They're all described in the
documentation
on setting preview options. |
Test target browsers
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| When you preview or
publish your site, you see how it looks in your
browser. But people using another browser, WebTV, or even a
Macintosh might see something quite different. Objects might
not line up the same, text might be larger or smaller, actions
don't work in older browsers, and so on. To be sure everyone
sees your site as you intend, test it on as many different
browsers, browser versions, and computers (PCs, Macs, Linux
boxes) as you can. You can download all the browsers you need
for free, from these sites:
You can't always install multiple
versions of the same browser on the same machine (installing a
new Internet Explorer, for example, typically overwrites any
older version). So hopefully you have a few computers. If not,
publish your site to a test folder on a public Web server-
your Web host will probably let you do this. Then try viewing
your site from libraries, Internet cafes, copy centers,
friends, or colleagues who might have the various setups you
need. |
Find
out which browsers to target and how to accommodate
limitations they might have when you support
your visitors' browsers. |
What to test for
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| Here's a thorough
checklist.
How do colors look?
Hopefully, you designed your
site using Web-safe colors-the 216 shades that appear
correctly on most, if not all, browsers and computers (if you
didn't do this, please go directly to design
tips). Even after using Web-safe colors, there might be
subtle differences, in particular between PCs and Macs, so
make sure these differences are acceptable. If you're
designing for WebTV, make sure colors aren't too bright, that
colored text is readable, and that background colors don't
obscure content.
What about text formatting?
You also hopefully
designed your pages using Web-safe fonts, like Helvetica,
Verdana, Georgia, or Times, which most people are likely to
have. NetObjects Fusion substitutes similar fonts if those you
select aren't available, so you might view pages on a computer
lacking those fonts just to see the result. WebTV, for
example, will make everything Helvetica. |
For
more information about choosing colors, fonts, and a page
size, see these design
tips. |
| Be aware also that
various browsers and computers display fonts slightly
differently. Internet Explorer tends to space lines and
characters a bit further apart than Netscape, while on a Mac,
fonts can appear three point sizes smaller than on a PC
(quite a difference!). So be sure to view your site on
different machines to see how it affects the layout and
readability. If you can't find a Mac, you can alter the size
of the display font in your browser (it's a browser option) to
get an idea of how things will look.
Is everything in the right place?
If pictures,
text, or other objects don't line up well in the browsers you
care about, try revisiting your layout strategy. Whether you
position objects freely within a Layout, group them in a
Layout Region, place them in a table, arrange them
sequentially in text boxes, or do some combination thereof,
can affect how things are positioned by different browsers.
Your use of HTML output methods plays a role, too. For
example, layered objects work only with the Fixed Page HTML
output method (as well as only on version 4 or higher
browsers). Actions typically require using the Dynamic Page
Layout method, unless the action is associated with an object
in a Layout Region, in which case you use the Regular Tables
Method just for that region, and... well, you get the idea.
It's too much to discuss here, but these guidelines are all
summarized in this chart
on design priorities and method choices.
Do links work?
First, make sure that no links are
broken. NetObjects Fusion takes care of verifying all internal
links, but you should check external ones. The best way to do
this is to preview or publish your site, and then click each
link to make sure it goes to the right place. If you have a
huge site with a lot of links, you can verify links more
quickly by going to Assets view, opening the Assets menu, and
choosing Verify Links. NetObjects Fusion will let you know if
any links are unresolved (that is, they don't go to a known
page). Just as important as avoiding broken links is to check
that your links create useful paths. That is, when people
follow the link, will they easily find the information that
link promises? When linking to a discussion of tomato plants
at a large gardening site, for example, send people to the
exact discussion, or to a place that clearly points to it.
Don't just send them to the site's Home page, where they may
not see any mention of tomatoes, at all. |
Remember that custom text formatting made on the
Paragraph Settings dialog applies only if you're publishing
your site for CSS. Find out more when you support
your visitors' browsers. |
Do pictures
appear?
When you add a picture to your site, NetObjects
Fusion doesn't actually copy the picture into your site
assets; it refers to it from its original location. Only when
you preview or publish do pictures get copied to the preview
or publish directory. If a picture is renamed or removed from
its original location, it will be missing from the final site.
You must then find the missing picture and reference it again.
Fortunately, this is easy to do in Assets view.
How does your site look without
pictures?
Some people like to speed up surfing by
turning off pictures in their browser so they don't have to
wait for them to download. Instead of your lovely artwork,
they see each picture's ALT tag-text shown typically in a
little yellow box. To make sure that even impatient visitors
don't miss essential information, don't confine your company
name, prices, or other key content to graphic text. Or if you
do, include the same information in the picture's ALT tag,
which people will see even without pictures.
How do pages look at different screen
resolutions?
Your pages will look bigger or smaller,
depending on each visitor's screen resolution. So test your
site not only at the lowest resolution you think people will
be using to be sure nothing gets chopped from view (typically
800 by 600 pixels), but also at the highest possible
resolution, where screen real estate is at a maximum. You'd be
surprised at how small your page can become for
visitors who like really huge desktops! |
Quickly
verify links and find missing pictures in Assets view. It's
all described in the documentation
on verifying links and on verifying
assets, respectively. |
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Full-screen view of a Web page on a 600 by 800
screen
Same page on a 1600 by 1200 screen
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Change
screen resolutions using the Display settings on the Windows
Control Panel (which you open from the Start menu).
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Will pages load
quickly enough?
Your site is probably a lot zippier
when tested on a local computer or network than when
downloaded live over the Internet. So to get the same browsing
experience as your visitors, publish it to a test folder at
your Web host, then test each page over the slowest connection
you think visitors will be using. For a home audience, this is
probably a 28.8K modem. For business users, it's an ISDN or
DSL connection. No pages should take longer than 30 seconds to
fully appear, and most should pop up a lot more quickly.
If you don't have access to different connections, estimate
download time based on the total size of a page's assets. This
is the size of the HTML file itself plus each graphic image on
the page. A 28.8K modem, for example, can download a 60KB page
in 30 seconds. If a page loads too slowly, whatever is taking
longest to appear is probably the culprit. Either get rid of
it or somehow reduce its size. Large graphics, for example,
might be the result of using too many colors (see these design
tips for details).
Finally, the Internet is typically slower during business
hours, so you should also check your pages during different
times of the day and week.
Test drive your forms
To test forms and make sure
that visitor input gets submitted to you in e-mail, posted to
a file, or otherwise processed the way you intend, you'll have
to publish to a Web server that supports CGI scripts. Your
best bet is probably to publish to a test server at your Web
host, who you hopefully already verified can handle the form.
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Find
out potential size hogs by going to Assets view, which lists
the size of each picture, HTML file, and other asset (click
the Size header to sort assets by size). |
Do components and actions
work?
To test components, you must publish rather than
preview your site. You can do this easily by going to Publish
view, clicking Generate on the Control bar, and publishing to
My Computer.
As for actions, remember that they work only on version 4
or later browsers. Also, they don't work if you've added HTML
directly on the same page (you'll have to get rid of either
the action or the custom HTML). And finally, actions can be
fussy about the HTML output you choose. Specifically:
- If you're targeting a wide range of browsers, set your
site's HTML output method to Dynamic Page Layout, and your
actions should work great …
- … unless your action is embedded in a Layout Region. In
that case, leave the site setting alone, but set the
region's HTML output method to Regular Tables.
- If you're publishing a site using CSS and therefore set
your site's HTML output method to Fixed Page Layout, your
actions will work fine, as well.
How's your
spelling and grammar?
Finally, take time to proofread
your entire site closely, looking just for misspellings,
questionable grammar, and other editorial errors. Theirs
nuthing worse then a Web site with bad speling and typos,!
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Not
sure what we mean by HTML output method? Read this documentation
on controlling published output, and you'll soon become an
expert! |
When your site is tested and ready
for action, it's time to begin promoting it. Begin by making
sure it appears in popular search engines.
Next: Register
with search engines.
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