What to test before you call it finished

A preview on a laptop is not a launch test. The failures that embarrass a small publisher are ordinary: a button that only works while you are logged into the back office, a map that never loads, a form that sends nothing.

The route

Write the visitor’s first five minutes as steps. Example for a local guide: open the link, read today’s hours, save the page, turn the phone onto airplane mode, open the saved page, turn the network back on, send the contact form. Do this on one iPhone and one Android phone if you publish both. Do it again after force-closing the app.

The content

Read the first screen aloud. If the first sentence is a slogan, replace it with the fact a visitor came for. Check the date on anything that expires. Check the phone number by calling it. Check that the contact form arrives somewhere a person reads, and that the form does not claim an email reply you have not set up.

The sentence you will print

Write the instruction that will go on the poster. Then follow it yourself, cold, without using the back office. If you cannot, the poster is early. Store review, if you are submitting, comes after this test, not instead of it.