Digital Unleashed 2017: Functionality Testing: Getting it Right Before We Start Optimising

Digital Growth Unleashed 2017, London, UK

Key Themes:

​What is Functionality?

The quality of serving a purpose well — ensuring a site works practically and reliably for users.

Eisenbergs Hierarchy of Conversion:

1. Persuasive — Does the site solve the user’s problem and delight them?
2. Intuitive — Can users easily figure out what to do?
3. Usable — How user-friendly and simple is it?
4. Accessible — Is the content findable and relevant?
5. Functional — Does it work properly, consistently, and reliably?

Website Structure Analogy (The “Fruit Tree”):

• Roots — Functionality, accessibility, performance

• Soil — Analytics and traffic data

• Trunk — Heuristics, surveys, biometrics, usability

• Fruit — Visual tools like heatmaps and scroll maps

• Dead Tree — Poor functionality and testing = lost revenue

Automated vs Manual Testing:

• Automated — Fast, repetitive, great for stability but misses emotional and contextual nuances.

• Manual — Captures emotional, physical, psychological factors — critical for real-world insights.

Device Testing Options:

• Physical device labs (accurate but expensive)
• Cloud-based testing (cheaper but less reliable)

Testing Strategy:

• Start testing (big stuff, small stuff, anything suspicious)
• Track and log issues (where, how, what, which device, severity)
• Identify, prioritize, fix

Real-World Examples of Losses:

Retail: Broken basket button → £125k/year lost

Catalogue sales: Registration page failures → 33,000+ lost customers

Travel industry: Funnel button failure on iOS → £24 million lost annually

Main Message:

Problems often go unnoticed unless specifically tested.

You wouldn’t know you had spinach in your teeth without a mirror — same with website functionality issues.