Pre-launch QA Diligence

Prior to the launch of web sites both big and small, there are several techniques and best practices to help ensure the delivery of a quality product that is performant and bug free. Often times addressed toward the end of a project, one of the most commonly used terms to describe this step of the process is quality assurance, or QA.

Quality assurance (QA) is a way of preventing mistakes and defects in manufactured products and avoiding problems when delivering solutions or services to customers
– Wikipedia

Bug Tracking

Validate, Fix Errors, Manage Enhancements

Performance Enhancements

Techniques to improve the speed of your site

  • Test your site at web.dev and Google Page Speed Insights
  • Conduct a site audit for K size of all assets
  • Optimize all media (e.g. images, videos, etc). Example: manually adjust via Photoshop's Save for the web (legacy). Recommended Image Formats:
    • jpg (for images/raster photos with lots of color)
    • gif (for images/illustration with under 256 colors)
    • png-24 (for images that require alpha transparency
  • Minify all local dependencies (html, css, and js)
  • Considerations:
    • Consider using a CDN
    • Consider using a critical css file
    • Consider file compression (e.g. gzip)

Due Diligence

Style guides, code clean-up, and more...

  • Refactor all code by removing any redundant or unnecessary code.
    • Remove unused markup (html)
    • Remove unused styling (css)
    • Concatenate your Javascript into one js file
  • Consider creating in-house style guidelines & documentation (for internal developer use and/or client use).

Quick Checklist

  1. Is your HTML & CSS validating with no errors?
  2. Is your site Section 508 Compliant?
  3. Have you tested on Multiple Platforms, Browsers, Devices, and Screen Sizes?
    • Mac and PC
    • Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE, Edge
    • Large Monitor, Laptop Display, Tablet, Mobile (including portrait & landscape views)
    • iOS and Android
  4. Have you done a site audit and optimized all assets and media (images, videos, etc.)?