As part of my regular research, I’m constantly checking out websites all over the Internet. I’ve even had the chance to be a judge for the WebAwards. Point is, I’ve seen a lot of what’s good and bad online. There’s stunning creative with terrible content and there’s amazing content with lifeless design. Occasionally, the best of these combine to create a site that both looks beautiful and has tremendously valuable content. They’re rare, but they exist. Unfortunately, this isn’t all that it takes to have a website that customers engage with and changes their minds. In the end, the number one requirement is that is works.
When I say “work,” I don’t mean that it must “work,” as in move people along the adoption spectrum, purchase funnel, or whatever you call it, I mean that it actually functions correctly. You’d be surprised how often this doesn’t happen. Links are broken, videos don’t play, fancy iframes don’t quite load, and sites are down. All of these (and many, many more) are completely unacceptable. But, for some reason, these major errors seem to be fairly common. I haven’t noticed that they occur more often on pharma or healthcare websites and I’m not going to call out any specific sites (to protect the innocent and guilty), but I am going to cover a few very specific things you need to ensure happen as you’re developing your new site and maintaining your old one.
I’m going to focus on something I call “The Ante of Quality Assurance.” That is, you have to pay a bit before you can even get started just like an ante in poker. Everyone has to pay it and it ensures the game (i.e., your site) goes as planned. If you don’t have money allocated for quality assurance (QA) in your budget, then take money from somewhere else for it. If your site doesn’t work, does it matter that you have one more flashy graphic? As a client, you should have zero tolerance for errors in the final product. I can guarantee that they are going to happen during development, but once the site is live (and out of beta if you have one), then your site should work flawlessly. F-L-A-W-L-E-S-S-L-Y. Anything less should be fixed immediately. However, if you employ the right QA staff, you should never have this problem. So, do you have money budgeted? Do you have dedicated QA professionals who are trained to find errors and not just people at your agency who need billable time? It makes a tremendous difference.
The best analogy I can give to people who aren’t digital experts is this: Imagine if you completed your TV commercial and during it’s first airing, it simply when black after 20 seconds. Would you stand for that? No, you’d probably have someone’s head on a platter. Now then, how come it’s all right if your shopping cart or your product demo video doesn’t work?
Most companies do a good job with the basics. Links all work, Flash elements play as they should, pages render as they are supposed to. At least they do a good job when it comes to one browser. It takes a little extra effort and also some extra development smarts to ensure that the site works correctly in every browser. I’ve seen too many sites from giant companies work fine in one browser and fall apart in another. This isn’t a one browser world. Market share of web browsers is split between basically six browsers that account for 99.6% of browser usage. They are, in share order, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Netscape, and Opera. What?!? Only heard of two of these? You’re probably in good company. Internet Explorer (IE) accounts for 66% of the market. I’ve found most IE users don’t know (or care) much about the other browsers out there. But, if you don’t consider the others when you’re developing your site, you’re basically saying “sorry about your luck, but you can’t see my stuff” to one third of all Internet users. Not good, but common.
Without too much technical detail, each of the browsers interpret code differently. Some are very close to one another, others are not. For example, Firefox (22% share) interprets code very strictly and literally. This means that pages that contain coding errors are rendered in such a way so as to leave them looking or working incorrectly in the browser. However, to be sure, it’s the site’s fault, not the browser’s fault. Firefox strictly interprets the W3C standards for coding. IE tends to let you get away with a few mistakes and “hacks.” Some developers have little shortcuts they use when they code and others are just sloppy. The result can be a perfectly functioning page in IE, but one that barely loads in Firefox.
To add a little more complexity to this, let’s not forget that there are currently three versions of IE that people are using right now: IE6, IE7, IE8 (in beta). Each behaves differently than the other two. So, that means you’ve got to test opposite multiple browsers and multiple versions. While you’re at it, you need to check different operating systems as well if your site loads or installs anything outside the browser (like a widget or gadget).
By now, you’re probably seeing why you need QA included in your plan and the value of ensuring that it’s properly funded. You’ve got to do the basics right in order to communicate with your customers. Remember, these people usually don’t trust pharma and healthcare companies, so when they do extend themselves and come to your site, make sure your house is in order.
Join Dose of Digital on Facebook for exclusive content and sneak previews.
Ready to hire the folks behind Dose of Digital? Contact us.
Possibly related posts (auto-generated):
