Small Bugs, Big Impact: Lessons from Broken Links, Redirects, and Duplicate Buttons
Not every bug I found during my internship was dramatic. Most of them were small, almost boring on their own. But testing across half a dozen different websites and apps taught me that small, repeated problems add up to a much bigger trust issue for users.
The "everything leads to the same place" bug
On BKM Masala's site, I noticed the team page listed multiple people, each with their own individual contact information, but every single WhatsApp link opened a chat with the exact same phone number. I found nearly the same bug on Garden Sewa's contact page. It's an easy mistake to make when building a site quickly, copy one link, forget to update it for each new team member, but the effect on a real user is that the personal touch of "message this specific person" turns out to be fake.
Redirects that don't redirect
A recurring theme across nearly every project was links and buttons that looked functional but didn't go anywhere real. Singh Engineering Works had a "become a partner" button on Garden Sewa's site that redirected to WhatsApp instead of an actual form. Neuro Hospital's backlinks to Pabson Morang returned an error instead of the destination site. Social media icons across multiple projects loaded broken "Page currently unavailable" screens.
Buttons that duplicate each other
Neuro Hospital's site had both a "Call" button and a WhatsApp button that looked so similar, and served such an overlapping purpose, that they read as an accidental duplication rather than two deliberate options. It's a good reminder that not every bug is something breaking, sometimes it's something being unnecessarily repeated.
Static content pretending to be dynamic
I lost count of how many "Read More" buttons, calendars, and testimonial sections I tested that looked interactive but simply didn't respond. Garden Sewa's blog "Read More" button redirected back to the same page instead of opening the full article. Neuro Hospital's calendar view displayed no real information despite looking like a functioning scheduling tool.
Why these "small" bugs matter more than they seem
None of these issues will crash an app or lose someone's data. But each one chips away at whether a user trusts the product. A visitor who clicks three broken links in a row starts to wonder what else on the site doesn't work, even if the core functionality is fine. Small bugs are rarely tested on purpose; they're usually found by testers who click on absolutely everything, including the things that look too simple to fail.
The takeaway
Thoroughness, clicking every link, every icon, every button, even the ones that seem obviously fine, turned out to be one of the most valuable habits I built during this internship.
