Corporate Web Team

Website Quality Assurance Checklist

The purpose of this checklist is to provide a method of validation for web developers at ECU to ensure that all web-based content published meets the minimum requirements set out in the Web Content Management policy (ref) and the Corporate Web Style guidelines (ref). You should aim to Pass all three parts of the checklist. Further information can be obtained from the Corporate Web Team Web Business Manager Andrew Dunbar (a.dunbar@ecu.edu.au) Senior Web Designer: Tu Ly (t.ly@ecu.edu.au)

PART A: WEB-BASED PUBLICATION STANDARDS AND USABILITY If the website is managed through the WebCMS, most of the following are automatically managed, however you should review items A3, A5 and A8 before skipping to Part B. Otherwise web developers will need to verify all the elements identified in this part. Item # A1 A2 Issues Description / Test to be applied Document Type Declaration (DTD) The web-based content has the correct DTD code at the top of each document. Markup (XHTML) Each webpage contains valid XHTML markup, validated within the WebCMS using the HTMLTidy and Accessibility validation tools, or using the W3C Markup Validation Service (http://qa.web.ecu.edu.au/w3c-validator/). Metadata Each webpage contains appropriate metadata in accordance with ECU Metadata Standards. Styles, graphics, and layout Design of websites/webpages conforms to the current corporate web style (ref). This includes; All style and formatting is done through the use of Cascading Style Sheets. Style, graphics and layout been approved by ECUs Senior Web Designer. All pages comply with the Corporate Web Style guidelines. Hyperlinks All hyperlinks internal to the website are relative, not absolute. All hyperlinks are tested for broken links. Browser compatibility The website is compatible with the following base set of browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6+ (Windows) Microsoft Internet Explorer 7+ (Windows). Mozilla Firefox 2+ (Windows/Macintosh/Linux). Apple Safari 2+ (Macintosh/Windows). Navigation aids The website/webpage provide alternative navigation aids? Such as; (breadcrumbs, navigation footers, skip to the content, back to top) Passed Yes Passed No

A3

A4

A5

A6

A7

ECU Joondalup Campus, 100 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup WA 6027 Telephone: (08) 6304 3869 Facsimile: (08) 6304 2092

Corporate Web Team

Item # A8

Issues Description / Test to be applied Media independence Are all hyperlinks are worded in a media independent way and include appropriate title? (text descriptive and embedded, rather than the typical click here) Client side scripting No essential information of the website/webpage requires client side scripting.

Passed Yes

Passed No

A9

PART B: WEB-BASED CONTENT All web developers will need to verify all the elements identified in this part regardless of whether the web content is implemented in the WebCMS or not. Item # B1 Issues Description / Test to be applied Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation All content, including any titles, headers, menus, links, has been checked for spelling, grammar and punctuation. (It is preferable for this to be done by someone other than the webpage creator.) Glossary The content conforms to the ECU Website Glossary, such as acronyms, abbreviated words, and conventions. Rich Media If the web site contains any elements, such as Flash, Video, Audio, and DHTML: Alternative media types been supplied for those without correct plug-ins? (Such as plain-text alternatives). Links are provided for downloading the correct plug-in. Dynamic Content If the website derives any of its content from a dynamic source, such as a database: The dynamic source been tested thoroughly to ensure it functions correctly. The security of the database, and its hosting been approved by ITSC. If the dynamic source contains sensitive data it should be encrypted. The website/webpage fails gracefully when the source is unavailable (standard system error messages are not acceptable). Dynamic Applications If the website uses any Web 2.0 dynamic elements: The dynamic application been developed using progressive enhancement. The website operates without the enabling technology. The visitor is able to select whether or not to use the enhanced functionality. Viruses All files, including Microsoft Word, and PDF documents have been scanned for viruses prior to be being placed on the web. Passed Yes Passed No

B2

B3

B4

B5

B6

ECU Joondalup Campus, 100 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup WA 6027 Telephone: (08) 6304 3869 Facsimile: (08) 6304 2092

Corporate Web Team

PART C ACCESSIBILITY (All ECU websites/webpages are expected to obtain a minimum W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Priority 2 rating). If the website is managed through the WebCMS, most of the requirements are automatically managed, with only a subset of critical guidelines shown below. Otherwise web developers will need to verify all the required elements that form the WCAG 1.0 Priority 1 and Priority 2 guidelines available online at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/ Item # C1 Issues Description / Test to be applied. Guideline: 1 Equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content are provided. All non-text elements, such as images (including buttons, spacers) have meaningful alternative alt, or long description (longdesc) text. Rich media elements have meaningful alternatives presented. Guideline: 2 Don't rely on colour alone. Where information is conveyed with colour, it is also provided without colour. Foreground and background colour combination provides sufficient contrast for both images and text. Guideline: 3 Use markup and style sheets and do so properly. Use markup rather than images to convey information. Relative, rather than absolute, measurements for property values are used, such as DIVS, FONTS, PADDING, MARGINS. Header elements are used to convey document structure, such as H1, H2 Correctly markup quotations. List elements are used for generating lists, such as UL, OL, LI. Guideline: 4 Clarify natural language usage. Abbreviations and/or acronyms are expanded. Guideline: 5 Tables that transform gracefully. CSS positioning rather than tables are used for layout. Table elements are used describe table structure, such as TH, CAPTION, SUMMARY. Guideline: 6 Pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully. Page content is ordered and structured in a way that it can be ready with any associated style sheets turned off, or not supported by the browser, such as Lynx. Equivalents for dynamic elements are available and updated concurrently. Page content is usable when scripting and dynamic applications are turned off, or not supported by the browser. For dynamic elements, event handlers are input-device independent, not to include handles such as MOUSE-UP, MOUSE-DOWN, MOUSE-OVER Passed Yes Passed No

C2

C3

C4

C5

C6

ECU Joondalup Campus, 100 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup WA 6027 Telephone: (08) 6304 3869 Facsimile: (08) 6304 2092

Corporate Web Team

Item # C7

Issues Description / Test to be applied. Guideline: 7 Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes. Moving, blinking, scrolling or updating objects may be paused or stopped. Animations, such as Flash, have a skip option. Page redirects are handled by the web server, and not rely on the web browser to perform actions. Do not periodically auto-refreshing pages. Guideline: 9 Design for device-independence. All elements of the page can be operated regardless of the device used. Logical tab order has been applied through page elements, using the tabindex element property.

Passed Yes

Passed No

C8

ECU Joondalup Campus, 100 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup WA 6027 Telephone: (08) 6304 3869 Facsimile: (08) 6304 2092