iWeb Communities: Blog

The web consulting agency Box UK published recenlty a website launch checklist. If you are involved in the creation of websites, I invite you to go through the list which is obviously taken from years of experience operating in the web business.

This reminds me of another similar list, entitled Official “Successful Website Checklist Challenge”, which has the added benefit of being interactive and giving you a final score, based on your input.

Now being said that, those pages are 2 great references if you are launching a blog, a new web magazine, or a website for your company/product, but they are inadequate if you are developing a web application. There’s a lot of focus on content or search engine optimization which are irrelevant to a web team.

So here’s a checklist, for web applications developers looking to launch soon a web application. In the same spirit, if we’ve missed something, do leave a comment (or hit twitter)

User Interface, Front-End Design

• Front-End Tests: in the same way you test your software, you should also test that your front-end code is functional
  • UI testing: test the CSS and integration under different version of browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari), plus different OS (Windows, Mac, Linux), different resolutions, different devices (standard computers, netbooks, iphones, blackberries and any other device used by your target audience)
  • Code validation: html, css, javascript should be validated and standards compliant.
  • Graphics, Logos and Layout should met the latest specifications
• Blank slate management: what will first signed-up users see? will there be videos, first instructions on how to use the application?. If it’s a social website, make sure there’s an initial pool of active users. If it’s a productivity application, you can do a multi-page interactive tutorial.

• Tests: unit, functional, integration tests should pass fully (or the equivalent if you use a different methodology)
• Emails: if your application sends emails, make sure emails are not classified as spam by hotmail or any other big email provider. Also, make sure there is an unsubscribe option in every email sent. Test also delivery in email clients, if you chose to do html (gmail, Outlook, Mail.app, Thunderbird, Entourage, hotmail, etc.)
• Alerts and monitoring: setup a software to monitor services (httpd, database, cache) by using nagios or monit. You can also setup third-party monitoring, which will ping the url at periodic intervals
• Error management: use a service like hoptoadapp or exceptional to catch all application errors. For management of 404 pages, you can use a service like errorlytics. You should also put the application servers in non-verbose mode.
• Backup and Security: learned from the ma.gnolia breakdown, do have a backup strategy, and make sure you can restore the application from a backup. (no, a RAID setup doesn’t count as backup)
• Speed: optimize page loading times. Flickr’s goal of delivering a page in less than 250ms is a good benchmark (there are many tips such as minimizing http requests, using a CDN, compressing assets, using cache/memcache, database indexing, eager loading, you know them if you are a web developer)
• Hosting: check your architecture. does it scale? is it powerful enough? what about bandwidth?
• Load testing: if there’s a small chance that your website gets picked up on digg or a big blog, do load testing. The last born product is loadimpact, but there’s also SOASTA (load testing by using cloud computing) or standard tools like httperf
• Documentation: do you have documentation for future iterations, and also for sys-admins?

Marketing

• Copy: Get the strongest, most efficent (and correct) copy, taglines in main pages, user interface, emails, and launch newsletters
• Search Engine Optimization: check placement of headings (h1 vs h2 vs h3 etc.), check if there are customized meta-data in each generate page as well as keywords. Also do configure Google Webmaster console and yahoo! site explorer
• Analytics: setup an audience analytics software (Google Analytics for instance), and also software for development of the application, such as crazyegg’s heatmaps
• Customer Acquisition: setup funnels and relevant goals, tracked by analytics. Setup A/B tests (if relevant). Setup your affiliate, reseller or partner program (if any). Setup PPC advertising management (if needed)
• Social media: Prepare how you plan to be noticed in social media, by analyzing influencers, the different channels and mediums, content to be published on those channels as well as ways on how to get maximum impact on those websites, with the appropriate measurable metrics. (the classic examples are digg, reddit, stumbleupon, hacker news, techcrunch/techmeme, etc.)
• Monetization: checks ad locations (if any)
• Launch media: Write a press release, newsletter for pre-launch and launch, as well as direct mailings. Have also a landing page (especially if you sell a subscriptions)
• Blog: setup a blog, and publish posts about what you’re doing. A twitter account is also obligatory these days.

User Experience

• Accessibility and usability. Check rendering in black and white, less contrast. Boagworld has a fun and cheap way to test accessibility: with ski gloves and reading glasses. Also check font sizes, and contrast between colors
• Print and alternate views: check rendering of content in print mode, or in devices such as the iPhone or other devices.
• Errors: create custom pages for 404 and other error pages, with a list of content the user might be interested into.
• Feedback: feedback and support page, or feedback widgets, such as uservoice or getsatisfaction’s
• Navigation: easy-to-use, clear, consistent navigation
• Identity: setup contact pages, setup “about us” pages (personalizable team members). Show emails, address, phone contacts very clearly.
• Intention and Goals make sure there’s a strong focal point in each page or in each template. there should be only one clear message — make sure for instance there’s a strong homepage.

Note about checklists: there is the danger of putting away launch dates, to be able to conform to these tests. You should then weigh in risks vs potential rewards, and issue a deadline where the website will be published, no matter what.

Note: if you liked this article, you might also be interested in:

• Guide: How to Switch Web Hosting Providers
• How to Choose a Web Hosting Solution and Provider
• Hosting Guide: How to Choose a dedicated server
• How to Secure your Web Server
• Step-by-step guide on Diagnosing & Resolving web server problems
• Monitoring and Automatic Recovery of server services
• 3 Tools to Monitor Your Website’s status