A 4-Item Testing Checklist To Evaluate Your Website Design

A well-designed website is an asset to any company, helping it excel in digital marketing, rank well in search engines, and be competitive in the market. There are thousands of other websites on the internet, so it’s not enough to settle for one that’s half-baked. Even when you have one up and running already, it’s a prudent step to regularly check and audit if your website design is, in fact, still effective.

After going through all the steps you think are necessary to come up with a good website design, the next crucial step is to do a regular evaluation to check whether or not the website design. How do you conduct this evaluation? Here’s a checklist for you to meet:

1. Content

Your website’s content should always be an essential item on your checklist for evaluating your website design. After all, your website will be nothing without its content. Your website’s design won’t serve any purpose if it doesn’t have any quality content to deliver to your target audience. Most importantly, no matter how well-made or how well-designed your website is, if the content is poor, then it’ll still be an ineffective website. Your desired traffic still won’t be coming in.

‘Content is king’ is a saying that accurately reflects the standards set by Search Engine Optimization (SEO) processes. You should, therefore, evaluate your content regularly to ensure that it’s up-to-date and relevant, among all other standards.

2. Strategy Evaluation

Website design isn’t a one-time process. Rather, it’s one your team will have to go through periodically to ensure your strategies are effective. If not, you could be wasting your time on strategies that no longer steer your website towards success.

Evaluating your strategy means going through the following aspects:

• Quality assurance and user acceptance testing
• Website value, purpose, and goals
• Content management system
• Content strategy
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

With the points listed above, perhaps the one most people are the least familiar with is quality assurance and user acceptance testing. What is a UAT? This online resource will give you insights into this phase of the testing process so you can better evaluate these strategies yourself.

If there are specific strategies for each of the points enumerated above that are reported evaluated as ineffective, then be sure to change these right away. By doing so, you can avoid funneling your valuable resources into strategies that no longer help you attain your business goals. Failing to identify these strategies could affect your website’s competitiveness in the long run.

3. Usability

A part of your website design evaluation checklist should be its usability. This refers to the practical considerations of your website, especially in terms of its speed, ease of navigation, user-friendliness, security, and other technical details. 

If your website isn’t designed for optimized usability, this also means that website visitors wouldn’t have a pleasant experience with your website. No matter how attractive your design and layout are, or how good the content is, potential visitors will still leave your website in favor of one that’s easier to use and navigate through.

To see how usable your website is, be mindful of the following:

• Page loading speed,
• Security of customer information,
• Ease of navigation,
• Mobile-friendliness,
• Availability of a search button.

However, the list above isn’t exhaustive. It’s only meant to be a guide. In checking whether or not your website design is effective, consider all the ways to make your site as user-friendly as possible. Put yourself in the shoes of a website visitor, go through your site, and pinpoint potential problem areas that could irk your audience.

4. Aesthetics

How can you achieve a good website design without ensuring that it’s aesthetically pleasing? Among all the other items you should have on this checklist, you should pay careful attention to its aesthetics. Your website should look good to your target audience for them to enjoy browsing through it. Think, graphics, typography, layout, theme, and even images.

For instance, your typography shouldn’t hurt your text’s readability. Your layout should make use of white space to give the eyes a chance to relax from all the design factors on your website. This is particularly important when considering elements such as Estate agent website design. Think also of your choice of font color. Your text’s color should stand out from that of the background—if not, your website visitors will find it hard to read your site’s content.

Conclusion

With the checklist above, you now have a clear-cut idea of what a ‘good website design’ truly entails. In closing, it’s also important to remember that these aren’t always absolute. After going through this checklist, you also have to ensure that you weigh these with the specific needs and preferences of the niche your website or business belongs to. By doing so, you’ll know that all the factors on your checklist will be geared towards the success of your website. The checklist above, however, can help you set the metrics to measure your website’s success.