As human interactions become more and more digitalized, your business and personal websites have become far more important than a couple of decades ago.
\nWhen a user lands on your website, it's essential to help the user find the right information as effectively as possible. Otherwise, the user may leave the website, losing potential business opportunities or visibility.
\nOne of the important ways to improve website design and help users find the information they want is to make the site searchable using the search functionality. It enables users to find content by searching for particular words without understanding or exploring the entire website or app, a quick or less complex way to find content.
\nLet's discuss why your website needs to have search functionality and its benefits.
\nIf you have a large site -- assuming an e-commerce website or having hundreds of pages, users could find it extremely challenging to navigate to what they're looking for. In this situation, a search box allows your users to see what they need with a quick search.
\nRegardless of where each user lands on your website, a search box will help them quickly find specific topics or pages.
\nSimply, the more straightforward it is for users to navigate around your entire website, the more probable that they will explore it.
\nIf it's difficult for users to track down what they're looking for, they'll head off to somewhere else that can fulfill their requirements. Help your users engage quite a bit on your site with a search textbox.
\nAssuming you can incorporate your search bar into your Google Analytics, you'll have the option to track how frequently individuals look for a specific term. You can utilize this data for on-page content, order details, or billing plans.
\nFor example, if the most searched item on your website is Perfume, you could create a separate section or link on the home page so that users can directly navigate to that item faster.
\nIn this mobile era, it's critical to ensure your site and applications are mobile-friendly. Whenever users are on their mobile phones, they could be out and in a hurry, and a search feature will allow them to search and navigate to a specific page rapidly.
\nPeople are habitual to using some features to the level that they don't think much before using them. Search functionality is one of them. In this digital world, you can't have a site that doesn't offer an ideal user experience. Keep in mind that this minor component can significantly help increase your website’s engagement rates.
\nAs the number of site visits increases, it indicates an improvement in brand engagement. Users visit your site because they are happy with the information and experience. This helps to raise your brand image among other competitors in your market.
\nA positive user experience will lead to more visits to your site. As the visitors' count and time spent on your website increase, search engines like Google will consider your website performing well and of good quality, which will further elevate your page rankings in search results.
\nYou will also find some new keywords from users' searches to search for similar or different information on Google or other search engines. These search keywords can be those words that you want to target in SEO and other marketing and search strategies.
\nAs you expand your website with new content, blog posts, or new products, it can make your website cumbersome and affect user experience. Accordingly, finding an exact item can become difficult. However, with the right site search strategy, website size or navigation does not hamper the user experience. Users can find what they need and get ideas for other related items.
\nIn a nutshell, search functionality on your website helps offer a smooth, consistent experience for your users. And a well-implemented search functionality has more potential to ensure the website's success.
\nTry not to stop your users from exploring all the features your site offers; add search functionality to your site soon!
\n","frontmatter":{"title":"Why Implement Search Functionality for Your Websites","author":{"id":"Neha Vyas","github":"nehavyasqa","avatar":null},"date":"February 24, 2022","updated_date":null,"tags":["Search"],"coverImage":{"childImageSharp":{"fluid":{"aspectRatio":1.5037593984962405,"src":"/static/455ec841671081b53edc59522c28a138/58556/search-functionality.webp","srcSet":"/static/455ec841671081b53edc59522c28a138/61e93/search-functionality.webp 200w,\n/static/455ec841671081b53edc59522c28a138/1f5c5/search-functionality.webp 400w,\n/static/455ec841671081b53edc59522c28a138/58556/search-functionality.webp 800w,\n/static/455ec841671081b53edc59522c28a138/99238/search-functionality.webp 1200w","sizes":"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px"}}}},"fields":{"authorId":"Neha Vyas","slug":"/engineering/importance-of-search-functionality-for-websites/"}}},{"node":{"id":"baae78e2-435f-5af7-b0a0-00561115b4da","html":"In the whole software development process, QA testing has a unique space. QA is responsible for ensuring that developed software is bug-free and works concerning technical and business requirements.
\nQA engineers must have a good understanding of each project and what it means to accomplish. They must deliver quality software to the clients.
\nGiven the responsibility of a QA's job, it is natural to face many challenges in their day-to-day tasks. This article will help to understand the most common of those challenges faced by any QA.
\nUsually, QA teams face unstable environment setup issues that we need to prepare for most of what we have. Sometimes the server gets stuck due to overload and requires a restart many times during testing etc.
\nEscalate these issues to the seniors and make sure you get the environment ready for the testing.
\nNow and then, we realize that a tool is not the right choice for the project. We do not have any other option but to keep using it because the clients/organization already have licenses and would not go for a new one until the current license expires.
\nIt is not fun, but you learn alternate options. Or at least, one can conclude with regards to if the possibilities work.
\nThe biggest challenge QA is to receive requests for last-minute testing. The primary reasons for such demands are that the development process takes more time than expected and the time for testing is underestimated. Generally, testing and debugging take 50% of the development time. When QA has a short time frame for verification, they should check software against the main business specifications. Software testing should begin at least three days of release.
\nIn the case of QA, it's faster to create a document from scratch than to use the one created by others. Using test cases created by others increases the time of verification and puts limits as far as discovering bugs.
\nEverybody thinks of the successful releases of new features or products, but the reality could be different. From our testing experience, the software doesn't typically release from the first time in most cases. The best time for releasing the software is the start of the week. Thus it gives development and QA teams the rest of the week to manage with whatever comes up.
\nWhile trying to make an accurate estimate, some software estimations could be entirely unpredictable and go wrong. As developers, QA also doesn't have 100% security from unexpected issues.
\nDevelopers and QA engineers should work closely. Testing should be done once part of the development process is done, and after that, bug fixing activity should start. QA submit a test report and only after that debugging begins.
\nIt is slightly common to change project requirements mid-sprint in agile development projects. While this can be frustrating for the team and due to that testers can be affected. They may need to re-try the whole extent of testing since even the littlest changes to a codebase should be gone through various tests to guarantee its steadiness and similarity with existing code.
\nNaturally, last-minute changes in the requirement can be difficult for testers to deal with, especially if there are tight deadlines to deliver results.
\nProfessional differences between development and testing teams are still common. Developers think that testing is a final process of the software development life cycle, and testers do not require anything apart from a list of user journeys and technical requirements.
\nHowever, testers may have difficulty identifying flaws in the code if they are not acquainted with the development process. If they do not understand how the software works, they will have trouble creating test cases to find all possible bugs.
\nResolving the challenges mentioned above will not only make the lives of QA testers much easier. Still, it will also streamline the software development process to make it more useful and time-efficient. By making it easy for QAs to do their job well, organizations can ensure that their products meet all business requirements and function in the best possible way.
\n","frontmatter":{"title":"Top 9 Challenges Faced by Every QA","author":{"id":"Neha Vyas","github":"nehavyasqa","avatar":null},"date":"March 05, 2021","updated_date":null,"tags":["QA","Processes","Testing"],"coverImage":{"childImageSharp":{"fluid":{"aspectRatio":1.9047619047619047,"src":"/static/3cb5bace33cd7de67d48a1447d9512a7/58556/testing-challenges.webp","srcSet":"/static/3cb5bace33cd7de67d48a1447d9512a7/61e93/testing-challenges.webp 200w,\n/static/3cb5bace33cd7de67d48a1447d9512a7/1f5c5/testing-challenges.webp 400w,\n/static/3cb5bace33cd7de67d48a1447d9512a7/58556/testing-challenges.webp 800w,\n/static/3cb5bace33cd7de67d48a1447d9512a7/99238/testing-challenges.webp 1200w","sizes":"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px"}}}},"fields":{"authorId":"Neha Vyas","slug":"/engineering/challenges-faced-by-qa/"}}},{"node":{"id":"9d181c3b-9835-5ee4-98e3-b67cda842cfe","html":"Being a Quality Analyst, it's our responsibility to run test cycles on the system and push releases every two weeks to ensure the system is updated with the latest fixes and everything is bug free on the live platform. Usually, every release includes amendments as well as fixes done. If we talk about the resources, the team typically has 8-10 resources, including developers and the QA team.
\nTherefore, we should always be proactive about every release and avoid any stress during the release. Everything has to be managed properly when it comes to execution from the development end or testing from the QA end. For that purpose, we have to follow proper strategies to ensure that everything is getting tested and the release we approve met the expected quality standards.
\nWe have penetrated limits in two ways. In this day and age, we are a client confronting unit, as we get with our clients straightforwardly about their issues which they experience over the software or what are the highlights which they need to join on the stage. Also, we are actively participating in the design discussions or any inputs required from our end, which we receive from the client's end, to make sure we are going in the right direction as per the client's vision. Our testing experience always helps detect any flaw or defects before doing any coding work, which reduces additional efforts and minimizes the work. This way, we can ensure everything is done based on the client's given timeline and a quality outcome.
\nAs it's impractical to test everything each time at whatever point you push any delivery. For that reason, you need to focus on the piece of code that has been chipped away. This way, you can test the primary work component without postponing things and afterward run a total test cycle to ensure no other part has been clashed by the changes. For this reason, there is a new delivery check with the group of what piece of code has been refreshed and what are the results, and generally center around that part to run tests. This way, you can focus on the work and endeavors which should be put.
\nWe center around those pieces of the code and utilize existing computerization tests to deal with different parts. If you realize something worked in the final delivery and you're not contacting it in this delivery, at that point, you don't have to invest an excessive amount of time in testing. So base your delivery standards on the new code that is being added.
\nQA has to make sure that whatever work needs to be done is appropriately prioritized. For example, if particular area of a platform is not affecting things much and can be taken care at later stage then it should be on the lowest priority; If less than one percent of our users are on a particular browser, issues specific to that browser stand out enough to be noticed. And the area which is affecting the whole system should be done on the very first priority. There should be priorities defined like – Blocker, Emergency, Highest, High, Normal, and Low! So always work as per the critical attention on a specific feature and consider the target user demands. What is their feedback or issues to which they want to have access? If something moved beyond clients and we find bugs, we need to fix them in the following release.
\nYou will often hear from the development team that, \"…. It works fine with me; there must be some network issue or system issue on your end\". We have to make sure not to have such conflicts in between because, in the end, our goal has to be – Delivering bug free solution!
\nFor that purpose, Our QA and development teams run their tests in the same environment. As our builds move through the development pipeline, we should test the code under the production environment to build our staging environment to simulate our customer's production environments.
\nAlways plan to arrange a dedicated performance team who can run tests as soon as a product is steady and tell the team about new versions and requirements to evaluate the performance risks.
\nTo update performance teams with all the latest information and provide them with an environment close to production as you can. To make sure that there shouldn't be any gaps between and can appropriately test the product.
\nQA team runs regression tests in the last phase of the product cycle, and it is that process that confirms the product delivery. If any of the regression tests fail, QA informs the managers/stakeholders so that appropriate actions can be taken for further release as it's never acceptable to deliver the product if any of the tests fail, which might end up in more significant problems for the team as well as the client. So the QA team always makes sure to run regression tests to verify everything properly.\nWe additionally automate our regression cycle, so it just requires a couple of days to run.
\nAs we maintain customer data in our database collections, we need to guarantee that it should remain attuned with any new versions that have been released or about to release. Whenever we release a new version, we run several updates to check that no data was harmed, and in case we find any data-corrupting bugs, those become our highest priority. We also perform manual backward compatibility testing while taking steps towards finding an automated and more efficient approach. Nonetheless, it would be best to do some manual testing, as this is one of the last stages before production.
\nWe perform post-release sanity tests on our production account to authorize that everything works as projected, including all third-party systems. We initially perform tests utilizing our existing production account but then create a new account to check that the process will continue to work correctly as new customers register.
\nThe best testing practices should inculcate all other processes in general and risk management processes in particular in them. The focus should be to improve the software's overall quality while aiming to reduce the cost with continuous monitoring during and after the software release. While doing quality assurance testing, the tester should comply with all the fundamental principles and industry practices and look at the product from the end user's perspective.
\n","frontmatter":{"title":"QA Testing Process: How to Deliver Quality Software","author":{"id":"Neha Vyas","github":"nehavyasqa","avatar":null},"date":"March 01, 2021","updated_date":null,"tags":["QA","Processes","Testing"],"coverImage":{"childImageSharp":{"fluid":{"aspectRatio":1.5037593984962405,"src":"/static/129a0973488f0d77139cfcb0f1cb61eb/ad85c/software-testing.webp","srcSet":"/static/129a0973488f0d77139cfcb0f1cb61eb/61e93/software-testing.webp 200w,\n/static/129a0973488f0d77139cfcb0f1cb61eb/1f5c5/software-testing.webp 400w,\n/static/129a0973488f0d77139cfcb0f1cb61eb/ad85c/software-testing.webp 600w","sizes":"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px"}}}},"fields":{"authorId":"Neha Vyas","slug":"/engineering/qa-teams-deliver-quality-software/"}}}]},"authorYaml":{"id":"Neha Vyas","bio":"She lives in the Pink City and is working as a senior quality assurance executive. For her, software testing is life! She also loves traveling, music, food, and living life at its best.","github":"nehavyasqa","stackoverflow":null,"linkedin":null,"medium":null,"twitter":null,"avatar":null}},"pageContext":{"id":"Neha Vyas","__params":{"id":"neha-vyas"}}},"staticQueryHashes":["1171199041","1384082988","2100481360","23180105","528864852"]}