[thelist] FWD: Web Site Testing Services

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Wed Jul 12 22:56:27 CDT 2000


got this spam (scroll to bottom) the other day from a company claiming to audit 
web sites... unfortunately, i have no idea *what* they could actually audit since 
accessibility, usability, and compliance are not even remotely demonstrated on 
their own site...

so i offer up this email to you folks in case you get the same spam... if your 
boss hears of this and wants to use it, or a client thinks it's worth purchasing, 
steer them away...

validation can be done by the W3C validator for free (http://validator.w3.org/), 
accessibility features can be tested by Bobby for free 
(http://www.cast.org/bobby/), load time can be done with a stopwatch (and that 
nifty IE5/win feature that shows all the images and d/l time on a page - try it), 
links can be checked (and should be) by a human or any number of shareware 
or online utilities, and usability can be achieved through some pretty simple 
testing... you don't need to pay people without a clear understanding to do it for 
you...

ultimately, as developers, we are all responsible for testing our work... having 
another set of eyes review it is good, but paying someone to do it is often 
pointles... few organizations can stay on top of the technologies, and cultivating 
in-house talent is always more valuable...

and the worst thing you can do is spam a company who performs very thorough 
audits with auditing offers, especially when their site indicates a capability on 
par with some interns...

so i offer this poor soul up for sacrifice on the altar of evolt.org, and hope that 
my message can only help them see the error in their ways... have i received a 
response you ask?  not yet... will i?  probably not... i never do...

--------------------

Kathleen,

I reviewed your web site to take a look at the services you offer, in particular the 
web site testing and validation, and was surprised to see that your own site is 
brimming with errors.

You note that the average Fortune 100 company web site (what about the 
others?) contains 13 HTML coding errors, when your own site, according to the 
W3C HTML validator, contains 40 basic errors including improperly nested 
tags, unclosed tags, unquoted attributes, two <body> tags, and even the most 
basic - a missing document type declaration at the start of the document. As a 
result, I only checked it against the HTML 4.01 Transitional specification since 
there is no clue what version of HTML the page is supposed to be beyond the 
use of a number of deprecated and proprietary tags and attributes.

In addition to that, and not covered by a software validator, are many elements 
that are barriers to accessibility.  Section 508 of the Workforce Investment Act, 
enacted on August 7, 1998, requires government sites and government funded 
or related sites to be accessible to all users.  It is conceivable that future case 
law will make this apply to many public sites as well (consider the AOL class-
action lawsuit by blind users).  Given this, your site lacks the most basic 
features for disabled users such as 'alt' attributes in its images, and HTML 4.01 
and Web Accessibility Initiative accessibility features in your form elements.

>From a usability standpoint, the lack of clear page headers and consistent 
navigation are just starters on the interface problems with the site.  It does not 
work very well on most of the 80+ browsers on which I perform testing, and its 
page sizes go beyond the oft-cited 8 second rule, by as much as 41 seconds 
on a 14.4kbps connection.

I would go on, but if you have the staff to audit sites with the skill level you 
claim, you might want to turn them loose on your own site.  As it stands, your 
own site does not demonstrate that your organization has the capability to 
perform audits to the level that we require.

Thank you for your time.

Adrian Roselli
Vice President, Interactive
Algonquin Studios
http://algonquinstudios.com
716.842.1439

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kathleen M. Haas [mailto:khaas at telsoft-inc.com]
> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2000 9:25 PM
> To: info at algonquinstudios.com
> Subject: Web Site Testing Services
> 
> 
> Algonquin Studios,
> With the emergence of e-commerce sites and the growth of
> business performed over the web, it is critical for
> companies to have their web sites tested extensively.
> According to a study by ParaSoft, the average Web page
> operated by a Fortune 100 company contains 13 HTML coding
> errors, and link errors occur about once every four
> pages. Furthermore, Zona Research estimated that U.S.
> companies lose approximately $58 million per month in e-
> commerce sales due to Web page loading failures. Web
> sites need to be tested to ensure that they function
> correctly, are compatible over many different browser and
> operating system configurations and can handle a large
> amount of concurrent users.
> TelSoft, Inc. is an independent testing facility that
> specializes in web site testing and load testing
> solutions.  If you would like us to send you more
> information about our web site testing and load testing
> services, please e-mail us at info at telsoft-inc.com to
> receive further information about our testing services or
> visit our web site at http://www.telsoft-inc.com. 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Kathleen Haas
> Project Manager
> TelSoft, Inc.
> 4790 Red Bank Expressway, Suite 218
> Cincinnati, OH  45227
> Phone: (513) 561-0225
> Fax: (513) 561-0226
> E-mail: khaas at telsoft-inc.com
> http://www.telsoft-inc.com





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