Group Project Update: Web Site Design, Implementation and Maintenance

We are nearing the end of the semester, and there are only two weeks left of my Web Site Design, Implementation and Maintenance class. You may remember me talking about this class in a previous blog. We all work as small design teams who are creating Web sites for pretend clients.

Each team member has a title. I am the Quality Assurance Lead. This past week, I finally learned more about what that means. When creating a Web site for a client, the site must be tested for bugs and potential errors before it is launched (AKA a finished Web site that people on the Web can access).

There are so many factors that play a role in how a person visiting the site will see it. It is the Quality Assurance Lead’s job to facilitate tests in order to make sure that the client’s site can be viewed in the way it was intended to be viewed. Some variables include what kind of browser the viewer is using (ex: Internet Explorer, Firefox) and what version of the browser is being used, the type of platform (ex: PC, Mac), operating system (ex: XP, Windows 7), screen resolution and connection type. That’s a lot of variables. Not to mention there are numerous combinations you can make with those variables!

After running through several tests to make sure that things like images and links show up correctly, any errors found must be fixed. It’s more work than I imagined, but it’s a necessity.

This week we have more steps to complete. The site isn’t ready to launch yet, even though the errors are fixed. We need to create several plans before the launch, like the site announcement plan, maintenance and evaluation plan, and a plan involving search engine optimization (SEO) so it can be found on the World Wide Web.

I know it will be a good feeling when my group and I finish this project. To have all this documentation to look back on when we have real clients will definitely help as a reference. In this class we have learned that Web design is more than building nice-looking Web sites and handing them off to clients. A professional site involves lots of research and planning, testing and retesting, and documentation-- tons of documentation.