Five practical tasks for testing a website before launch
“Do you like the website?” can collect opinions about colour without showing whether someone can find the information they need. Before launch, a small business can learn from realistic tasks. The five tasks below are a starting plan to adapt to your service, not results from a study that has already taken place.
Prepare the task and observation sheet
Invite people who could actually use the website and open the version being tested. A colleague who already knows the intended route provides a different kind of check. GOV.UK guidance recommends tasks with a clear goal that do not reveal the solution. Write a need-based scenario instead of telling someone to click the Services button.
Record the target, observed behaviour, obstacle and proposed next change for each task. Explain that the participant is not being examined. Tell them before taking notes or recordings, and use examples that do not require real payments or messages to real customers.
Tasks 1 and 2: find a service and evaluate an example
First ask: “Find the service that could support a workshop you are opening, and explain your choice.” Notice the words the participant searches for. Then ask: “Find a relevant project and explain what work was completed.” This examines understanding of scope as well as the ability to open a card.
If someone cannot locate a project, avoid immediately showing them the route. Record the category they explored and the information they expected. Distinguish an unclear label, missing content and a hard-to-see control before deciding which part of the design needs to change.
Task 3: identify scope and pricing uncertainty
Ask the participant to find what they would need to prepare before requesting a quotation. Do not send them looking for a fixed price if the site does not offer one. The task examines whether the enquiry process and preparation are understandable. Compare their explanation with the information actually provided on the page.
For example, someone may assume that copywriting is automatically included. Investigate whether the scope description caused that interpretation. Clarify the content in the next revision rather than adding an unapproved sales promise during the session.
Tasks 4 and 5: make contact and return
For the fourth task, ask the participant to complete the contact steps with sample information. Specify where to stop before a real submission, or provide a safe test environment. Then ask them to return to the project they examined and prepare its link to share. Observe navigation, Back behaviour and permanent page addresses together.
If the session begins on a phone, also watch while the onscreen keyboard is open. Can people reach fields, error explanations and the submission control? Record the exact steps if a refresh loses the selected content or prevents the person from continuing.
Connect each finding to a decision
Our practical prioritisation is to separate obstacles that stop a task, uncertainties that hinder a decision and visual refinements. Give each item a reproducible example, an owner and a recheck date. A small number of observations does not establish that every customer behaves in the same way.
Read our enquiry form guide for decisions specific to contact flows. We can define a sample page and review scope through a short conversation. After a revision, try the same goal again; changing the code alone is not evidence that the original obstacle has disappeared.
Frequently asked questions
How many people should take part?
This article does not prescribe a universal sample size. Start with relevant tasks and user groups, then plan further sessions around what remains uncertain.
Is asking a friend to open the website enough?
Opening confirms access. A realistic task, observation of the journey and a record of obstacles provide more useful evidence.