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QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCESS

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Website Launch

Let’s say your website is slow and hard to navigate, or woefully out-of-date with regard to your business, or just plain ugly. Visitors land on it, possibly leave right away, or grow frustrated trying to find what they want. Then, one day, they open your website to find it shiny and new, with updated copy and design elements that sing your brand right off the screen. It’s like magic—at least, that’s how it seems from the outside. 

Launching a new website, and getting everything right, is anything but magic. First, months of planning and development go into it as you partner with a web design team. Even when all goes according to plan, it can feel like a lot of work. It all pays off on “go live” day, or the day you launch the new website. But it’s the work that takes place in those final days and hours that makes the experience feel like pulling the proverbial rabbit out of a hat.

What Happens on “Go Live” Day?

Because designing a new website takes time, your design team will create it on a subdomain of your url, commonly referred to as a dev (development) site or staging site. They will insert code in the robot.txt file that keeps it hidden from public view so, for example, someone can’t stumble onto it from Google. In the meantime, your regular site will stay the same until the new one is ready to go live.

Your design and development team will test everything as they go along in the dev site. However, even when things work perfectly in a dev site, they can break when the code is pushed to production. To catch anything that might go wrong, a quality assurance (QA) expert will go over every aspect of your website, testing and confirming accuracy.

Your project manager will facilitate communication between your team and Blue Diamond Webs to choose the best day and time to go live. If necessary, they can work with you to notify customers of any possible downtime. Your go live will typically take place during business hours, but options are available to launch in the evening or on a weekend. As with everything in web design, user experience is top priority!

Blue Diamond Web’s Go Live Quality Assurance Process

That “crunch time” when your website moves from the dev site to production are critical. At Blue Diamond Webs, our team puts their full focus on your website during this period. Many clients choose to run their own quality assurance—and we welcome their hands-on approach—but another option is to engage one of our dedicated website QA experts. 

QA goes through more than 35 points to find even the smallest glitch. They check functionality, usability, and compatibility with a range of browsers and devices. For example, they will test that all forms work correctly and consistently, and they test all internal and external links. They thoroughly test mobile responsiveness to cover a wide range of devices your customers might use.

Meanwhile, the Blue Diamond Webs, IT and development teams stand by to address any issues and resolve them as quickly as possible. The IT team makes sure backup systems are in place, should your website go down, and confirms that everyone, including you, has signed off.

Before finishing a go live, our team puts themselves in your shoes. They ask themselves, “If this were my company, would I be proud of this website?” We would never launch a client website that did not reflect our best work.

What Happens After Your Website is Launched?

Once your website is live, it has to become integrated into the internet. Think of it as getting plugged into The Matrix. A domain name system (DNS) tells the internet where to point your domain name and how to deliver your pages to users. The whole process can take up to 48 hours since DNS all over the world need to relay the information. 

Next, Google and other search engines crawl the site to index your content, which can take from a few days to a few weeks. However, you can avoid that wait time by submitting an XML sitemap and putting an SEO strategy in place in advance. Your SEO team can help you avoid mistakes to preserve your ranking by using the same urls or 301 redirects to tell Google where to find your new content.

At Blue Diamond Webs,, we equip you with the resources you need to be successful post-launch. You’ll be trained to manage the site so you can monitor and adapt with your customer base. A website maintenance plan can equip you to add or change pages in the future, as you need to.

When you partner with Blue Diamond Webs, to design your new website, you can rest assured that a team of in-house experts will handle each step with the utmost care. When it comes time to go live, we will celebrate together. If you’re ready to start planning a website that will grow your business, contact us today.

OUR CUSTOM SEO MARKETING SERVICES

Every business has a unique story. We’re here to make sure the search engines get yours
right with results-driven SEO services. 

KEYWORD RESEARCH

All effective search engine optimization campaigns start with keyword research. Blue Diamond Webs will discover the most relevant target keywords that YOUR CUSTOMERS search for when trying to find your products or services.

LANDING PAGE CREATION

Targeted landing pages are a key component with any digital marketing campaign. Blue Diamond Webs develops custom landing pages that provide a unique experience to the viewer and help drive them to a conversion.

SITE SPEED

Studies show that users often abandon websites if they take longer than three seconds to load. With our site speed optimization, your site will load fast for your customers on both mobile & desktop.

LOCAL OPTIMIZATION

With frequent updates to Google’s local algorithm, local optimization is becoming increasingly important. Whether its creating new local listings or developing a custom geo-targeted landing page, Blue Diamond Webs has you covered.

ON-PAGE SEO

We optimize your content pages for the target keywords we find to be most cost effective for your business. This includes updating META data, adjusting URL’s, adding image ALT tags, and more!

ANALYTICS

We integrate all our optimization campaigns with Google Analytics to track results. We set up goals and event tracking based on your campaign objectives, and use the in depth data reporting to analyze user behavior on the site.

LET’S GET STARTED

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Accessibility Law Suites

Top Companies That Got Sued Over Website Accessibility

Gavel on marble platform

It might surprise you to learn that your favorite brands have faced accessibility lawsuits. Why?  Because their websites did not provide equal access to people with disabilities.

In recent years, businesses – from small brands to large corporations – have been subjected to an increase of 300% in accessibility lawsuits, paying an average of $25,000 in court settlements.

Well, no one is above the law. This statement is illustrated clearly in the case of these top companies that failed to meet accessibility standards for their consumers.

Famous Web Accessibility Lawsuits

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Logo

Electronic Arts (EA) Inc. is one of the recent targets of accessibility lawsuits. In May 2022, Rafael Cordero, a blind user, sued EA for failing to design its website to be fully usable and accessible to blind and visually-impaired users.

According to the lawsuit, accessibility issues on EA’s website center on the inability of screen-reading software to:

  • freely navigate the site
  • read item descriptions
  • read prices of items.

It also states that:

“Unless websites are designed to be read by screen-reading software, blind and visually impaired persons are unable to fully access websites and the information, products, goods, and services contained therein.”

Cordero wants a jury trial in addition to statutory, actual, and punitive damages for himself and all class members (other blind and visually impaired EA website users).

DraftKings

DraftKings logo

DraftKings, a top sports betting company, has several measures in place to ensure its website is accessible. However, web accessibility guidelines are constantly changing and can be difficult to track. DraftKings recently discovered this – and not in a pleasant way.

In June 2022, Robert Jahoda, a visually impaired user, sued the company for inaccessibility. Jahoda claims the company’s website was not compatible with popular screen-reading software.

He wants DraftKing to make changes to its compliance policies including retaining a qualified accessibility consultant and implementing all the recommendations. He also seeks payment of an undisclosed amount in attorney fees and nominal damages.

Target

Target logo

 

This case is a precedent for web accessibility cases and a cautionary tale to industries that do not meet the WCAG standards.

In 2005, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), a non-profit representing blind Americans, notified Target that its website (Target.com) was inaccessible to blind and visually impaired customers.

The main complaints were that:

  • images on the site lacked alternative (alt) text.
  • several headings necessary to navigate the site were missing.
  • it was impossible to complete an online purchase without using a mouse.
  • maps showing the locations of Target stores were inaccessible to screen readers.

The lawsuit alleged Target violated the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, the California Disabled Persons Act, and The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – accessibility laws that require all businesses and public spaces to be accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.

Target initially argued that its website is not covered by the ADA, saying that only its physical stores were. It later changed its stance and settled with the NFB in 2008, paying $6 million in class damages.

Target also agreed to make its website more accessible, train its web developers team on accessibility design requirements and techniques, and permit the NFB to monitor its site for three years.

After the court ruling, Target responded,

“We will continue to implement technology that increases the usability of our Web site for all our guests, including those with disabilities.”

Netflix

Netflix logo

In 2012, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) sued Netflix, the popular streaming service, for failing to provide closed captioning for most of its “Watch Instantly” movies and television streamed on the Internet.

At that time, Netflix was the only major player in the online-only video subscription business, which meant the disparity in access for deaf or hard-of-hearing viewers was huge.

NAD’s President Bobbie Scoggins was quite strong-worded on the matter, saying:

“We (the deaf and hard-of-hearing community) must have equal access to the biggest provider of streamed entertainment. Streamed video is the future and we must not be left out.”

In its defense, Netflix claimed it did not violate the ADA because its streaming business could not be considered a ‘public space’. However, the presiding judge ruled in favor of NAD, stating that public places are not only actual physical structures.

In the judge’s words:

“In a society in which business is increasingly conducted online, excluding businesses that sell services through the internet from the ADA .. would severely frustrate Congress’s intent that individuals with disabilities fully enjoy the goods, services, privileges, and advantages available indiscriminately to other members of the general public.”

The judge ordered Netflix to caption its streaming video library by 2014 and keep doing in the future. In addition, Netflix paid $755,000 to the NDA in legal fees and damages.

Nike

Nike logo

In 2017, a New Yorker, Maria Mendizabal, filed a lawsuit against Nike Inc, the footwear manufacturer, for inaccessibility. Maria claimed Nike’s two corporate websites – Nike.com and Converse.com – failed to give equal access to blind and visually impaired users like herself.

Maria said Nike’s websites did not conform to design requirements that allow screen readers to access and read web content. This meant Nike violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and several state accessibility laws. Major issues cited included:

  • Missing alternative (alt) text for images and other non-textual content.
  • Empty link texts
  • Redundant links.

Maria asked the judge to place a permanent injunction on Nike to update its websites to meet accessibility standards. She also sought compensation in damages, court costs, attorney fees, and pre-and post-judgment interest.

Amazon

Amazon logo

Today, Amazon’s websites are accessible, but this wasn’t always the case. In 2018, Cedric Bishop, a visually impaired customer, sued Amazon for being inaccessible to blind and visually-impaired users.

Bishop claimed Amazon’s website was incompatible with screen readers and refreshable Braille displays – software that allows visually impaired users to read web content. The lawsuit ended in a settlement.

Beyonce Knowles (Park Entertainment)

parkwood entertainment logo

Right after New Year’s celebrations, on January 3, 2019, Beyonce’s company, Park Entertainment, was sued because its official website was inaccessible to visually impaired users who could not buy tickets to a Beyonce concert.

The plaintiff, Mary Conner, argued that this violated the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Major web accessibility issues included:

  •  Lack of alternative (text) for images.
  • lack of accessible drop-down menus and navigation links
  •  inability to navigate the site using a keyboard instead of a mouse

The class-action lawsuit focused on people who are legally blind – a category that includes a range of visual impairments, not just total blindness.

Domino’s Pizza

Domino's logo

In 2019, Guillermo Robles sued Domino’s Pizza over violations of ADA Title III. Robles claimed he could not order food from Domino’s website and mobile app using screen-reading software.

The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff (Robles) that Domino’s mobile app was covered by the ADA and that the company violated the law. He ordered Domino’s to fix all accessibility issues on its site and also pay $4,000 to the plaintiff (Robles).

CVS

CVS Corporation

This case involved a class action lawsuit filed by several blind individuals who sued CVS, a pharmacy chain, for violating the ADA because its website was not accessible to screen reader users. The lawsuit claimed that CVS failed to provide alt text for images, proper headings, keyboard navigation, and other features that would make its website accessible. The case was settled in 2009, with CVS agreeing to pay $250,000 to a settlement fund for affected customers and make its website accessible.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

In 2017, Lucia Marett, a blind user, sued the fast-food chain Five Guys for having an inaccessible website that prevented her from ordering food online. The lawsuit alleged that Five Guys violated the ADA and the New York Human Rights Law by failing to provide alt text for images, keyboard navigation, and other features that would make it accessible to screen readers. The case was settled out of court with Five Guys agreeing to make its website compliant with WCAG 2.0 AA standards and pay $10,000 in damages and attorney fees.

DoorDash

DoorDash Inc.

This case involved a class action lawsuit filed by several blind individuals who sued DoorDash, a food delivery service, for violating the ADA because its website and app were not accessible to screen reader users. The lawsuit claimed that DoorDash failed to provide alt text for images, proper headings, keyboard navigation, and other features that would make its website and app accessible. The case is still pending as of 2023.

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