Digital Stories

Size: 40 pages

Government status: Government Ministry

My professional status: contractor at CWA New Media

Website client: Ministry of Education

Dates: July 2004

Categories: Govt web standards tester, Writing for the web, eZ Publish, Government websites, Small sites

Brief: to fully test Part 2 of the Digital Stories site within CWA's Te Kete Ipurangi website portal in a wide range of browsers and on a variety of platforms, following CWA's intensive testing schedule. To provide a written report of the test results and to recommend changes to the site based on these results.

My responsibilities included:

  • Following the testing schedule developed by CWA
  • Testing the site to ensure it was accessible in Internet Explorer (version 4 upwards), Netscape (version 4 upwards), Mozilla and Safari
  • Testing the site for accessibility on both PCs and Macs
  • Testing the site for fast loading both in a dialup and broadband environment
  • Testing to ensure that all graphics were coded at the correct size and that all the video and audio clips worked as expected
  • Producing a written report with recommendations for site alterations based on my test results.

Every design company has its own standards of testing. CWA's was particularly thorough as it focused on accessibility and required full W3C validation of all its sites. Site testing was a great way to develop my understanding of CWA's requirements in terms of design and development - both of which I was contracted to work on for the company.