Testing

Testing on different computers

Webpages display differently on different computers and different browsers.

When designing your webpages:

• Test your design on several different browsers and platforms.
• Test your design for small monitor size and low resolutions.
• Test download times on a computer with a slow internet connection.
• Test how your pages print.

References

• AnyBrowser.com
  http://www.anybrowser.com/
  Its main aim is to ensure that any browser can view your website. It also has links to other useful tools e.g. link check, HTML validation, screen size tester.

• BrowserSizer
  http://www.applythis.com/browsersizer/
  A tool to help web developers check to see how their webpages look on screen resolutions of 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 and WebTV. It controls Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator from an unobtrusive application that provides an interface to resize either browser to the standard screen resolutions.

Proofreading

Captivate people with your content or distract them with small errors.

People change their focus whenever they encounter an error. People often judge the quality of your work by the number of minor errors it contains. It is worth a bit of extra effort to get the course right before it goes public.

• Proofread your content before and after you develop your online course.
• Have another person proofread your work – this is also useful because another person will often spot ambiguities in the explanations.
• Use the spellchecker in your HTML editor (if it has one) to highlight incorrect words.
• Write your content in a word processing package and use the spellchecker to highlight incorrect words.
• Use the AutoCorrect features provided in some word processing packages to automatically correct those words you commonly misspell.