The Most Common Website Bugs

Websites and online usage are becoming the predominant form of interaction in our society in essentially all aspects, from social media to news to e-commerce. In fact, in 2013, 47% of consumers reported that they would prefer the Internet as a shopping destination, strongly overtaking the 37% who preferred a physical shopping experience.

As a result of more websites, QualiTest has seen an upsurge in requests for website testing projects, amongst the numerous other testing services that we perform. Over the course of 2014, QualiTest’s Quality Management Tool (QMT) has logged and stored the bug summaries from hundreds of website testing projects performed by QualiTest. We thought that the resultant statistics about the most common types of bugs were pretty interesting, and wanted to share them with you. Our graphs show the most common types of bugs, as well as the OS in which the most bugs were found.

Types of Bugs Overall

The most common bugs found on websites are functionality bugs, followed by design flaws and usability issues.

Comparing the amount of bugs in Cycle 1 vs. Cycle 2

As you can see, the amount of bugs between test cycles differ dramatically. Just one test cycle makes a 40% difference.

Analyzing the Types of Bugs in Cycle 1 vs. Cycle 2

The most common types of bugs found in the first cycle of testing almost always paralleled the most common bugs found in the second cycle. However, there was a moderate increase in localization bugs during cycle 2, followed by performance and compatibility bugs.

Bug Severity

When testing websites, most bugs are of a medium severity, meaning that while the bug did not cause a failure or impair usability, it was still a problematic bug. This was following by “low” severity bugs, which are mostly aesthetic, and then “high” severity, which caused inconsistent results and impaired system usability.

Bugs by Browser

Most website bugs occurred across all browsers, but the most bugs unique to a specific browser occurred in Internet Explorer 10.

Bugs by Mobile Device

Most website bugs occurred across all mobile devices, but the most bugs unique to a specific OS occurred in iPad IOS 7.

QualiTest’s Quality Management Tool is a testing management solution for systems, provided for free as part of any QualiTest testing engagement. QMT’s interactive graphical dashboard provides real-time test status information, resulting in better visibility and insight you’re your organization’s management of the System Development Life Cycle process. With a single, centralized repository and support for the entire product lifecycle, including bugs, requirements, test procedures, test cycles, risks, and issues, QMT provides complete traceability and improves coverage.