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Navigation Testing
During navigation testing, all links of the design layout must be clicked and checked
that no page is orphaned (page which does not have links in other pages to be redirected to it). It is of no point to have information in a page which cannot be accessed by
any links of the entire system. Thus it should be checked many times by the designer
and representative users that there is no such things found. It should also be checked
that there is no dead end (dead end - no option to go back to previous page or any
other page). If this happens, this might irritate the users and there are chances that
they will never revisit or use the system.
Navigation should be smooth and pleasant i.e. usability testing has been passed. This
will assure there are less or ideally no errors. Navigation testing confirms that all links
go to the right direction and navigation is usable i.e. it is predictable and obvious when
clicking on something will result expected result [24,12]. This test also assures that
there are no two pages displaying same content and linked differently. This is likely to
happen when working for big projects without proper planning and record keeping. Important thing to note is with each test meeting with the end users, the design should be
improved based on their feedback and comments. This will improve the quality of the
design. In navigation testing, if all implemented keyboard shortcuts are working or not
should be checked. All possible paths should be followed and tested and no flaw
should just be left just like that if found. It should be fixed.
Layout and Content Testing
The other important thing to test is that designed layout fits in well with the functional
logic of the system. After unit tests have been passed, integrated tests should be run to
make sure all the functional logic just fits right with layout and content. In layout tests,
the things needed to be tested are page structure – margins and position, color and
font compatibility, color combinations, general appearance and all other similar aspects. No attribute should be left untested.