Designing a web application is something that most of you who read our blog will be familiar with, whether it be through designing an interface or coding the back-end, or both. And because of that you can relate to how difficult it is to get your site bug-free and ready for public release. I know that some companies like to bring in other web people to test their sites, and although it’s better than doing it yourself, you can’t replace the real thing – the end user.

The end user manages to find bugs in your application which you never knew could possibly exist or replicate yourself, this is especially difficult with all the different browser options popping up these days, and of course our ‘old friend’ IE 6 that people have decided to stay loyal to since Windows 95. I’ve honestly found myself wondering so often “How the hell did that person get that message to display, I didn’t even know it existed!?”

The other issue, besides bugs, is layout and naming. End users don’t like to read things like “Submit Query” which I’ve seen a lot of on very public websites used by thousands of people, and I remember being so proud of a new app I developed and the first critique I received was “why is the save button at the top of the page, and not at the bottom like every other website?”, cue the answer to everything; “Ummmmmm?”.

So how do we get around this oft-problematic stepping stone in web development? We’ve figured it out, and it’s not a magic formula. The answer is to Bring in the Layman. The Layman is someone who’s just started using the ‘inter-web’, has no clue about using [ctrl] + [f5], think Mozilla is a kind of dinasour and that a server is someone who brings you food through the screen. A perfect example is one of those people who use Google to go to any website they may want to visit. ie. they would Google “www.wearenotfreelancers.co.za” instead of just use the address bar.

The Layman will tell you within minutes what they find wrong, and it will probably be something so simple, but imperative to the functionality of the site and the people who will end up using it. It’ll be so frustrating to start off with, but because what they’re doing is looking at the site in a simple (in web terms) mind-set, it’s perfect for getting niggles ironed out.

Another good practise is to refrain from butting in and telling them “no no no, click there!” because that defeats the purpose of the exercise and doesn’t help at all.

I’m not saying that you must get a 12 year old to test your accounting application, but if it’s a Content Management System (CMS), for example, you may want to get your mom or surfer-brother to take the app for a test drive. So you never know, Granny may become the head of the testing department. As long as the chosen Layman knows how to access the web, they’re good to test out the site basics and layout. So if you haven’t thought of it before, or maybe you’re in the development stage of your app, give it a try, Bring in the Layman.