Paper to Pixel

For most of you designing great websites, diving deep into creative ideas is what web design is all about. Sure you may want your sites to be popular, maybe mentioned on established online galleries but it’s the creative process that I guess you would be most interested in.

And in reality that’s also the most exciting part of the process, anything after that is usually boring code, technology, servers. Also countless revisions to code, optimizing for various browsers and so on. And finally when that desired moment of launching the site comes you sigh with a relief.

But how often once the site goes live real problems start?
Some elements are missing, clients friend can see the site properly in their browser, someone else doesn’t understand what to do with registration form. The list is practically endless.

And as there is no real way to protect yourself from them all a quick check before you launch a website can save you a lot of trouble in the future.

Below is a list of some important and necessary checks your sites should be checked against before the official launch. Often forgotten or ignored those details if caught up on time may not only improve your visitor experience but save you from unnecessary costs after the site’s release.

1. 404 page
I deliberately placed error page first on the list. Most commonly overlooked element of site design, 404 page helps the user if the content they were looking for doesn’t exist, has been renamed or is currently offline. A well designed 404 page should reassure the visitor that the site is still there and offer some options where he can go in the site structure.

2. Feedback on email forms
My number two overlooked element and one that any form should contain. A good feedback simply tells the visitor if something has gone wrong with his form submission and how he can correct that.

3. Favicon
A favicon is a little icon you see in the tab in which your website is open or address bar of a  browser. It is also saved with the bookmark so that users can easily identify pages from your website.

4. Titles and meta-data filled in
Your page title is the most important element of SEO and you want to make sure that you have proper titles for each page of the site set up. On the homepage start the title with your company name followed by a brief description of the site. Most users will save that very page to their favorites and it’s important for them to be able to find it easily. On remaining pages you can start with specifics of what users will find on the page. It is also good to include the company location, a city or a country at least.

5. Sitemap
Adding a sitemap.xml file to your root directory allows the major search engines to easily index your website. The file points crawlers to all the pages on your website.

One of the ways to create it is to simply use applications such as http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ to create your sitemaps for you. You can also create a sitemap yourself following those steps.

Once created, upload the file to your root directory. Th url for the file should be www.mydomain.com/sitemap.xml.

6. Ensure your site works with JavaScript switched off
Some users may have JavaScript turned off for security, so you should be prepared for this. Also test your forms to make sure they still perform server-side validation checks, and test any other JavaScript bits you have on your pages.

To do so, you can easily disable JavaScript in Firefox in Properties panel, in Content Tab.

7. Check if your site displays well even if css styles are switched off
This one is really important from accessibility point of view. Some of your visitors, for instance people with cognitive disabilities may disable complex layouts to get a more linear presentation, users with color deficiencies or low vision may override your site colors or font sizes. So always make sure that all information on your site’s pages display well without any css styling.

Once you have all items checked you can at least be sure that if anything comes up after the launch, it most likely won’t be anything that should have already been done. So at least if anything happens it will be a challenge even if a pain as well.