This post was most recently updated on June 17th, 2019
How to test newsletter?
The newsletter is to promote their services/products, to update about recent activities of user interest or in the intention of advertisement to the subscribers or user who opt-in to it.
Now a day’s many templates are available in the market so clients can use them and circulate the newsletter to the readers. But it is very necessary to test the newsletter before it will get published as it is your promotional element which may reflect your business and help to achieve the organizational goals.
So while testing the newsletters below are the points can be considered which might help software tester –
1. Header
a. Logo of the company- Check the Font size, color and spacing of the logo. Alignment, height, width and padding of the logo from respective sections. Basically position of the logo as per requirement.
b. Month of newsletter with year- Whether the month and year of newsletter is updated or not. Also alignment, font size, color and font type
c. Link to open the newsletter in browser – The link should be opened in the users default browser set. As well as hand icon should be displayed on hover of text which has link.
d. Header of the newsletter- Header of the newsletter should be distinct and should be updated under <h1> tag.
2. Content
a. Font type – Font type should be used as per requirement or the font which is commonly available or compatible with different devices.
b. Alternate font type- There should be alternate font type mentioned while coding as in any case user’s device does not have particular font then alternate font will get supported and design will not get disturbed.
c. Font size – The font size should be updated as per client’s requirement. The headers, sub- headers and content should have different font sizes and should be differentiable.
d. Font color – The font color should be as per requirement and should go with the theme.
e. Line height – Line height should be maintained as per specifications provided and suits the design of the newsletter.
f. Headers- Headers, sub-headers should be updated in proper tags like h1, h2 etc. e.g. heading 20, subheading 18, data, content 16 ….or as per requirement…. etc.
3. Spacing
a. Top spacing & Bottom spacing – Top & bottom spacing should be same till the requirement from the client says it should be as specified
b. Left side spacing & Right side spacing – Left & right hand spacing should be same till the requirement says it should be as specified
c. Paragraph spacing- The spacing between two paragraphs should be same or as specified by client
d. Image spacing – Images should be separated as per design provided by client
e. Spacing of sections within – The different sections within a newsletter should be separated as per design spacing provided by client
f. Content-Image spacing- Images in the newsletter and the content related to it or content before and after should be placed at suggested position.
4. Images
a. Image quality – Quality of images should be proper as if user increases the zoom level or minimize the quality of images should not be affected.
b. Image zoom – The image zooms in should not blur the image it should regain the content’s clarity within.
c. Links to images – If any links provided to the images it should be properly updated and opens in new tab.
d. Titles of images/ Alt Attribute- If it will take time to load the images the title of the image should be displayed for which alt attribute should be used for image.
5. Links
a. Link target – All the links of the newsletter should be open in new browser window for which need to check what target has been set for link. E.g. target=”_blank”
b. Link availability – All link should be provided by client as provided by client. No blank links should be displayed on the page.
c. Link configuration- For text which have linked to any URL should have a hand icon on hover. Also the Direct URLs displayed on page should be in blue color and it will change the color of the link to purple once user will click on the link.
6. Footer section
a. Social media links – social media links should be properly displayed. Link should open respective pages in a new tab and pop ups with proper window. Check the spacing between social media icons. The mail to and call to links should be properly working in all the views
b. Copyright text with current year- Copyright text should be mentioned with current or latest year. Check the font size, color and type of the text.
c. Contact link – Contact links of the organization should be properly displayed and opens proper pop ups or pages.
d. Logo of the comp- Check if logo is displayed in footer section or not, if yes, then check that the logo should be same as displayed at the header section; may differ in size although.
7. Views of newsletter – Tester need to test the newsletters in different views of mail and browser as HTML renders differently for different platforms. So all the elements specified above should be checked in list of views mentioned below
a. Desktop view in outlook mail e.g. – Outlook installed in windows 10/8.1
b. Desktop view in webmail – outlook – e.g. Outlook opened as webmail in browser window
c. Mobile view in browser – e.g. Newsletter in mobile’s default browser like IE or Chrome
d. Mobile view in outlook app- e.g.- View in outlook app installed in mobile
e. Desktop view with browser/s e.g. – View of newsletter in different browsers specified by client. e.g. IE10, IE11or Edge browsers of windows
