Launching a brand new website can be both exciting and nerve wracking. You want to show what you’ve taken time to build, what you have learned and the creative solutions you’ve thought of.Once launched, you get a lot of comments from your friends saying, “Hey, that looks amazing!” Then the bugs and trolls start to come in with a few more words of honesty. A bit of CSS is playing up with the live content, a link is broken, and the very worst of all- there are typos. Most of the time is won’t be as bad as the above, but if you are new to the design industry and want to spend as little time fixing things post-launch as possible, take a look at our tips below.
FOLLOW A CHECKLIST
If you are the designer or developer, you are the first and last line of defence against mistakes. However, even the best of us can just forget things, and one of the easiest ways to avoid this is by simply making a list. The checklist could include things like making sure the links work, making sure the contacts forms work as intended, making sure your hosting is set up right, and so on. You can write your very own checklist before beginning your design, and as you start developing you can add to it.
GET MORE EYEBALLS
For the sake of clarity, these eyeballs should remain attached to their original owners. You want to get people who aren’t experts in computing to take a look over your work before its launch. This acts as some basic user testing. Whilst they check for typos etc. they can try doing the basic tasks on your site- proving that it works properly and is user friendly.
TAKE A BREAK BEFORE LAUNCH
One of the biggest contributors to messing up is stress. Launching a website can be stressful, especially if you’ve been going over the same thing 10 times a day. To avoid missing mistakes, try and schedule a break right before launch time. Giving your brain time to think about other things is a proven tactic for creativity, but it also works for going back to your work and spotting mistakes.
Other things to consider before launching a website is, validation and hiring professional eyeballs. Overall though, if you still miss things after taking this advice, the world keeps turning and you must remember that we aren’t perfect. When mistakes are inevitably spotted in your newly-launched site, just simply fix them and move on.
For more web design news and tips, check out our other blogs.
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