User Acceptance Testing

Your hands-on review of the new site — where you make sure everything works, learn how to use it, and give the final go-ahead to launch.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is one of the most important and rewarding phases of your project. It’s when your team gets into the new site in a safe testing environment, confirms everything works the way it should, and gets comfortable using it — all before it goes live.

It’s also where you have the final say. Nothing launches until you’ve reviewed it and given your approval. Think of UAT less as a test to pass and more as the home stretch: your chance to shape the final result and step into launch confident that the site does what you need.

This page walks you through the whole process. Each step links to a short guide with more detail.

How UAT works, step by step

1. Get set up to report feedback

You’ll use a tool called Marker.io to report anything you find. It adds a simple “Report an issue” widget right on your site, so you can flag something the moment you see it. Setup takes just a few minutes.
How to report an issue in Marker.io

2. Understand the kinds of feedback

Feedback comes in three flavors — bugs, enhancements, and discussions — and knowing the difference helps us act on yours quickly. Questions are always welcome.
Issue Types Explained

3. Prioritize what matters most

When you report something, you’ll give it a priority from 1 to 5. A realistic mix is the single most helpful thing you can give us — it’s how we make sure the things that truly matter for your launch happen first.
Priority Levels Explained

4. Review and approve each feature

Your UAT spreadsheet lists everything to review, with links, instructions, and training videos. As you work through it, you’ll mark each feature’s status — and approving them is what moves your project toward launch.
How to approve features

5. Final testing

Once we’ve worked through your prioritized feedback, you and our team do a final pass in the testing environment to confirm every fix is in place and everything’s ready.

6. Launch

When everything’s approved and confirmed, we ask for your official sign-off to go live. We will schedule a meeting to walk through the launch checklist together so we are fully aligned with the deployment plan and responsibilities.

Two parts: features first, then content

UAT usually happens in two stages, and it helps to know the order:

  1. First, you review the features — confirming the site is built and working correctly.
  2. Then comes content entry — once features are approved and stable, you fill the site with your real content. This may include a both manual content entry and migrated content. We hold off on this until features are settled, so you’re never building content on top of something that might still change. We’ll guide this part when you reach it.

A few things to keep in mind

  • Capturing feedback tool is built in to your UAT environment.
    During UAT you don’t need your own screenshot or recording tools — Marker.io captures the screenshot, page URL, and technical details for you. (More on tools.)
  • Keep a focused review group.
    UAT works best with a small, dedicated group submitting feedback (typically two or three people). Anyone on your team can review the site, but keeping submissions to a few voices leads to clearer, faster results. We’ll help you set this up.
  • You’re testing on a safe staging site.
    UAT usually happens on a staging environment — a private copy of your site where you’re free to explore, test, and click around without worrying about breaking anything. In some projects, depending on the timeline, this environment later becomes your live site. If that’s the case for yours, we’ll let you know so you can treat your content with a little more care.

Ready to dig in?

Start with setting up Marker.io, and reach out anytime you have a question — that’s what we’re here for.