Website Functional Testing

What does website functionality testing cover?

What is website functionality testing?

Functionality testing covers many areas, ranging basic link and navigation functionality, to e-commerce, account management, and many other things.

At the most fundamental level, website navigation must be thoroughly tested on various devices, including desktop, tablet, and mobile, to ensure proper functionality.

Additionally, it's essential to verify that all links on each web page function correctly and direct users to their intended target. This target could be another page on the same website, another website altogether, a different section of page that the user is already on, or the link might be intended to trigger the display of information or an image panel.

Whilst links are a fundamental aspect of website functionality, bespoke features can also require specific attention and testing. Remember too that many of the tests below might also need to be tested separately on other devices, such as mobiles and tablets. As such, cross browser and device testing should always be factored into your testing plan.

Examples of website functional tests

Besides the testing of link and navigation as previously mentioned, typical examples of website functionality testing we cover could include the following...

Cookie Consent Functionality

• Does the cookie consent request display when the user arrives at the website for the first time?
• If the user first arrives at the website from other pages besides the homepage, do those other pages correctly trigger the cookie consent request?
• Once a user consents to the use of cookies on your website, the does the consent request remain hidden during visits to other pages on your website, and for a specified period of time unless the user clears their browser cache?

Accounts and Profiles

• Users might want to create or log into their account, and need to be able to update information, change password, add or change the credit card in their profile.
• Users might want to select and save preferences within which could have an impact on how they make subsequent purchases, bookings or reservations on your website.

Examples of account log-in validation checks

Log-in validation checks

Consider some of the checks which would typically need to be tested when logging in. Besides a password you might use name, email address or ID, but for the examples below I'll just use ID.

• Only Valid ID + Valid Password should allow access. ✔
• All of the following should fail, but should be accompanied by relevant messaging:
  • Incorrect ID + Valid Password = ✖
  • Valid ID + Incorrect Password = ✖
  • Incorrect ID + Incorrect Password = ✖

Decisions may also need to be made regarding things such as:

• Making the ID and password case sensitive
• Notifying the user if that same ID has already been used.
• Making sure the user doesn't set a password which is too easy. For this there might be restrictions on the minimum and maximum number of characters allowed, and the requirement to use a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and other characters.
• Allowing a maximum number of incorrect attempts before blocking the user for a period of time.
• Allowing or preventing accented characters such as Á Ä Ç É Ê Ó Ö Ü etc to be used. (Note that some legacy backend systems cannot accommodate certain characters, so there may be a technical limitation on data input).

Testing product search

• The user might want to search for a specific product or range of products, and would expect the list of results to be accurate and logically sorted.
• They might then want to refine the results by using filters based on price, brand, size, colour, etc., and select a number of products for comparison before purchasing.
• The user would expect those search, filter and selection methods to work correctly, and also in a user friendly way.

Testing product pricing and discounts

• Are the products and variants of each products priced correctly?
• When multiples of a product have been selected, does the value of the shopping basket update accurately?
• Are discounts applied correctly for offers including:
  • Buy one get one free.
  • Buy two get the third free.
  • Buy one get the second half price.
  • Multibuys based on the same product or from a range of qualifying products.
  • Free delivery on purchases over £75.
  • etc...

Testing Promotional Codes

• Do promotional codes work correctly and apply the correct level of discount?
• Do they work once and are prevented from multiple use?
• Should promotional codes work in conjunction with other offers, are should they be exclude?
• Do any restrictions based on dates, locations, duration and other criteria correctly limit the use of the promotional codes?
• Does any messaging to confirm a discount has been applied work?
• Does any messaging to confirm that the use of a promotional code has been declined work?

Testing Date and Time Selection

• Does your calendar date picker allow selection of start and end dates across different months?
• Do any means of allowing users to select start and end dates and times work, such as for hotel or car rental reservations?
• Is the user able to select, reserve or change timeslots for meetings or appointments, such as for a dentist, school parents evening, MOT test on a car, etc?

Testing Social Media Links

• Do share or follow buttons to social media pages work correctly?
• Do they pass the correct information, such as titles, content, links and words for #hashtags?

Testing Open Graph Tags

• Do Open Graph tags which have been applied to pages on the website work correctly when someone uses the link to a specific page in a social media post or email?
• Does the information displayed by the OG Tags contain the correct details, link and image?
• Have the used of OG Tags been tested on multiple platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn?

Testing Schema Markup

• Do your web pages contain schema markup which is intended to improve success in search engine results, and attract more people to visit?
• Does it contain the correct information based on the content and context of each web page that the schema markup is used on?
• Does the schema markup pass BOTH the Schema.org and Google Rich Results validation checks? Bear in mind that even if a page submitted to Schema.org passes the checks with no warnings or errors, Google Rich Results might still flag something. So it's important to test using both tools.

There are, of course, many other examples of functional testing, and those will vary from website to website.