UAT FTW

User Acceptance Testing can be daunting. 

But it must be done. And honestly, we love to do it. At Genuine, we see this project phase as an unskippable opportunity for our team to partner with our clients to ensure the site meets project goals. 

Unfortunately, it is a phase that is commonly overlooked or deprioritized in favor of going to market faster. But at Genuine, UAT is not an afterthought- we start planning for it the moment we engage with you. 
 

First things first. What’s UAT?

User Acceptance Testing (UAT), also known as beta or end-user testing, is defined as testing the software by the user or client to validate that it meets agreed-upon acceptance criteria.  UAT is not QA (or a substitute for it), but is performed by project owners and others close to the project build, i.e., designers and business analysts. 

The purpose of UAT is to ensure we satisfy the needs of the content management team and the end user, not to validate lines of code. One of our guiding principles at Genuine is dual user empathy. Any digital agency worth its salt leads with empathy for the end user and we believe that’s critically important. But if end users are priority #1, then priority #1a are the business users responsible for managing the digital experience – whether they’re publishing and managing content, creating new elements or measuring and optimizing the effectiveness of the experience. We care deeply about that, and so we insist on UAT. 

Understanding the value of UAT

• UAT promotes transparency and focuses on quality and usability. It is an opportunity for your project team to be an extension of our team, and validate work completed in earlier project phases. 
• The UAT phase not only confirms that the site works and aligns with prior approved deliverables but also that it meets the needs of two key groups: your content management team and the end users. 
• Your project team will ensure that the team who will be managing content in the site after project completion will be able to navigate through the back-end of the site and make content edits easily. 
• It is also important to put on the hat of the end user to verify they will be satisfied with the website experience. The project team should validate that the site will be easy to use, intuitive, and will do what the user expects each and every time.

UAT the Genuine way. (Which is all the way.)

At Genuine, UAT is not just a siloed phase that is planned for at the end of the project. We consider UAT throughout the full redesign process. The UX phase establishes functionality specifications, the design shows how the content will appear, and the development of the site will structure the content entry. 

When the time comes in the project, we will partner with you throughout UAT. We will have a formal kick off to share the process with you that we have found to be most effective. A shared tool will be implemented so both of our teams can be in constant communication and collaboration. 

Your team will start off with some time to work in the site by building pages with test content. We will be available to answer any questions along the way and triage issues near the end of your content entry testing phase. We will work together to resolve issues reported and ensure the final approved site addresses any critical issues before handing the keys over to you. 

Dare to join us?

If you’ve been hesitant to go through User Acceptance Testing, we’d love to help. We truly enjoy working side-by-side - transparently and collaboratively - with our clients to ensure their sites meet their needs and goals. You deserve that, too. So get in touch!