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Testing

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Equipment Test

Overview

The completed web site has been tested for acceptable performance in the following criteria:

  1. browsers (Firefox, IE6 IE7, Opera and Safari) current version and one version back for IE only
  2. platforms (Win XP, Win Vista and Mac OS X)
  3. screen sizes(14" - 19")/resolution(1280x800 - 1400x1050)
  4. net connection (modem, DSL, cable modem, T1, satellite)

Any problems/issues in the following criteria have been noted:

  1. color distortion
  2. graphics or text that does not fit on the screen
  3. dramatic changes in layout
  4. length of time the site takes to load on a slow modem
  5. music players
  6. video players
  7. broken links

Test Conditions

All systems used for the test had 32 bit color (millions).

Firefox, Opera and Safari were tested on both Windows PC platforms and displayed indentically. No differences were noted. As these browsers continuously update themselves and are free, only the current versions were tested.

Firefox and Safari were tested on Mac OS X and displayed identically. No differences were noted. As these browsers continuously update themselves and are free, only the current versions were tested.

IE6 and IE7 displayed differently and do not self-update. The results will be described separately.

The test was conducted on three desktop systems and three laptops. One system is a Mac at the SRJC second floor lab. One is an old HP laptop in Southern California with dialup access and a very slow processor. Two are my home laptops, both Dells, one fast and one slow. One is my office desktop, Dell reasonably fast. The third desktop is my Linux Dell desktop, intermediate fast. I also took some observations from my office laptop, Dell, fast.

OS Mac OS X Win Vista Ultimate Win Vista Ultimate Win Vista Home Win XP Win 98 Linux 9.0
Browser Safari &
Firefox		 Safari,
Firefox &
Opera		 IE7 Safari,
Firefox &
Opera		 IE6 IE6 Mozilla
Screen Size/
Resolution		 19"/
1024x820		 15.5"/
1280x800		 15.5"/
1280x800		 15.5"/
1280x800		 14"/
1400x1050		 Unknown 14.5"/
1024x768
Color Distortion None: see note 1 None None None None: see note 1 None None: see note 1
Screen Fit Right Scroll: See Note 2 Right Scroll: See Note 2 Right Scroll: See Note 2 Right Scroll: See Note 2 Short pages fit Right Scroll: See Note 2 Right Scroll: See Note 2
Layout Changes None None None None None None None
Access Speed T1 Cable Broadband Cable Broadband Cable Broadband T1 Dial-up T1
Page Load Speed Very fast; see note 3 Very fast; see note 3 Very fast; see note 3 Very fast; see note 3 Very fast; some lag for images Reasonably fast; some lag for images Very fast; see note 3
Music Players Play Play Play Play Play Play Do not play: see note 4
Video Players Play Play Play Play Play Do not play: see note 4 Do not play: see note 4
Broken Links None None None None None: See Note 5 None None

Note 1: All of the desktop standalone monitors washed out the colors quite dramatically, both Mac and PC. The laptop monitors displayed deeper more vivid colors with much greater contrast.

Note 2: The only system that displayed a complete page was was the monitor with the hightest resolution. All of the other systems required a sidebar along the right edge of the screen even for the short pages. However, using Firefox this caused the image to jump left/right between long and short pages as the content recentered itself to accomodate the right scroll bar or lack of it. This behavior wasn't present in IE6 which just left the right scroll bar in place.

Note 3: Loading the slide show images in all systems caused a display of unformatted content.

Note 4: This is most likely due to older system architecture and/or lack of Flash players.

Note 5: The flyouts don't work when on the music page in IE6.

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