Every time you order with instantprint, you’ll create or upload your design to the website and make the purchase online. That’s why having an easy-to-use website is so important for us. We have an entire web team working hard behind the scenes to make sure our website is top quality and works seamlessly.
We shone the spotlight on our Quality Assessor, Richard Mitchell, to find out how he helps keep our website free from issues and running like a dream.
1. When did you start working at instantprint?
I started working here around a year ago. It’s gone really quick; I still feel like I’m new!
2. What does your role involve? (Be specific and detailed)
I work as a member of the Web Development team. In particular, my role is software testing, which is a major part of the quality assurance process we have here. My duties include checking the website for any defects or issues that would hinder a customer’s experience of using the site.
Any issues I find, I report them to the development team and they fix it. I then check to make sure there are no adverse effects that occur after the fix and that no unwanted features end up on the website. That’s called regression testing, and it’s probably the most challenging aspect of my role!
3. How does your role fit into the journey of an instantprint customer’s print?
As my role involves accessing the website from a customer’s point of view, I want to make sure the site looks great, it’s user-friendly, it’s accessible, and it does everything I want it to – for example, if I want to place an order, examine the artwork and upload my own, I can do that easily. I want to make sure it does all that and to make sure that nothing on the website frustrates me, because if it frustrates me I know it will frustrate a customer!
4. What makes you proud about working at instantprint?
I like that everyone’s enthusiastic. I interact with a lot of different people all the time, and seeing how enthusiastic everyone is about what we’re trying to do here is very inspiring – we’re all working towards the same goal! It’s quite a big company, with over 300 members of staff, so I really feel like I’m part of something big.
5. What’s your favourite project that you’ve worked on so far?
I’d probably say Spot UV because that was the first major project I worked on when I first started. It’s still a fairly new feature that we offer, and it allows customers to have an additional finish to their product. I tested the product mappings on the product pages to make sure they were fine, ensuring all the product configurations were in place so you could only choose to have Spot UV on the products we actually offer it on.
6. Tell us about your downtime hobbies or a random fact about yourself
As well as being an avid gamer, I also like watching a few different sports like football and snooker. Oh, and I also enjoy taking my dog out for a walk. He’s called Bailey and he’s a German Spitz.
7. Tell us about a standard day in the instantprint office for you
My day always starts with a meeting, just to get a heads up on what everyone’s working on and also to share what it is that I’m currently working on. Then, I examine the backlog for any issues I can get to work on. But, a lot of the time, I’ll be monitoring the live and staging test environment for any issues.
8. What do you enjoy most about working at instantprint?
As it’s the website that we’re working on, you can actually see the changes and the difference you’re making, and getting to see everything come to fruition is very rewarding. There’s also some great friendly competition amongst the web development teams.
