Find the leaks in Perch.
Perch is a made-up booking app, and I planted problems in it. Pick up the tools I use on a client's app, one for each thing I check. Nothing here is real, so you can't break anything.
The screen reader
A screen reader reads a page out loud, one piece at a time, for people who are blind or have low vision. It can only say what the code tells it.
- Press Next to move through Perch's booking page.
- When what it says wouldn't help you book, press That's a problem.
- Find all three problems.
Your findings
Each problem you find adds a card here.
About the standards
- WCAG is the common measure of whether a site works for people with disabilities. Level A is its baseline.
- COGA is W3C guidance for people with learning, memory, or attention differences. It shows up where it applies.
You found all three.
None of these show up in your analytics. A client who can't book just leaves.
Try the real tools
- VoiceOver (opens in a new tab), built into Mac and iPhone. Command and F5 turns it on.
- NVDA (opens in a new tab), a free screen reader for Windows.
- TalkBack (opens in a new tab), built into Android.
- axe DevTools (opens in a new tab) and ARC Toolkit (opens in a new tab), free scanners that catch a lot of this.
View source
View source shows the code behind a page. Every visitor's browser gets this same code, so anything in it is public. A box translates each line into plain words.
- Press Next to move through the code of Perch's booking page, one line at a time.
- When a line gives away something private, press That's a problem.
- Find all three problems.
Your findings
Each problem you find adds a card here.
About the standards
- CWE is MITRE's public catalog of the ways software goes wrong, one number per weakness.
- OWASP Top 10 is a widely used, ranked list of the biggest web security risks.
You found all three.
Automated programs sweep thousands of sites for exactly these, so to them Perch is a row on a spreadsheet.
Try the real tools
- View source is built into your browser. Press Ctrl and U on Windows, or Option, Command, and U on a Mac.
- GitHub secret scanning (opens in a new tab) catches keys before they ship.
- Mozilla Observatory (opens in a new tab) and securityheaders.com (opens in a new tab) grade a site's security settings for free.
The path walk
A path walk follows a new owner through their first session, one screen at a time. Owners sign up to get booked, so every screen should move them toward that.
- Press Next to follow a new owner through Perch.
- When something would slow them down on the way to a first booking, press That's a problem.
- Find all three problems.
Your findings
Each problem you find adds a card here.
About the standards
- Jakob Nielsen's ten usability heuristics are long-standing rules of thumb for judging whether an interface is easy to use.
- COGA is W3C guidance for people with learning, memory, or attention differences. It shows up where it applies.
You found all three.
Each one is a place where a paying owner stalls before their first booking.
Try the real tools
- Watch one new user sign up on a screen share, and stay quiet. Where they stop is your list.
- Lyssna (opens in a new tab) runs five-second tests: show a screen briefly, then ask what it's for.
- PostHog funnels (opens in a new tab) show the step where users drop off.
Want this done on your app?
A Snapshot runs all three checks on your real app, from the outside, for $500. You get the problems ranked by impact, each with its fix.