Importance of UI Testing

What Is Graphical User Interface Testing: It’s the process of testing the visual aspects of an application to ensure that the Look & Feel meets the End user expectation. This article would describe what GUI testing is all about, the importance of GUI Testing, and what features should be tested to ensure proper test coverage.

The graph above shows the share of e-commerce sales as part of the total retails sales between 2015-2021. As we can see, there is a steady growth and I feel that with the increase in user-friendly technology coupled with tech-savvy end user, In the absolute dollar terms, in 2017 revenue from e-commerce sales stool at 2.3 trillion US dollars. In comparison, it was nearly 1.6 trillion dollars in 2015. So, nearly 50% growth in 2 years.

Well, this is all good news if you are an e-retailer. However, at the same time, it is of utmost importance for you to design your website/mobile app that is very much focused on ease of use for the end user. Now the question is how do you ensure that your application is user-friendly? The answer is Graphical User Interface Testing or (GUI/UI Testing).

Things to be tested in GUI Testing: In my opinion, GUI testing involves testing of visual design elements such as the size, colour, font, or formatting of screen features like buttons, menus, icons, and toolbars. Apart from this It also includes testing more complex aspects as mentioned below:

·        Check logos in the header section on all the pages is as per design provided.

·        Check top menu in the header section is as per specification.

·        Check page content is as per design

·        Check links are working as per specification

·        Check buttons are working as per specification.

·        Perform pixel-perfect test.

·        Check page in all standard resolutions.

·        Check scaling.

·        Check navigation for links is as per specification.

·        Check pages are w3c validated.

·        Check external links (if any) are redirected on new tab / new window.

·        Check images displayed are not blurry.

·        Check favicon displayed matches the one displayed on the website.

·        Check no CSS errors.

·        Check no JS errors in any of the page throughout the site.

·        Check there are no broken links.

How to conduct GUI Testing: There are few techniques which can be used to conduct UI testing:

a)   Manual testing: Under this technique, testing is conducted by manual testers in accordance with the business requirements.

b)     Record and Play: Under this technique, an automation tool is used to capture the clicks made by the user and can be played back again and again to verify the objects and images on the screen.

 When to conduct GUI Testing: This can be up for a discussion as the answer to this depends on a variety of factors like SDLC being chosen to develop the application etc. However, subjective it may be, there must be some basic criteria before GUI testing can be conducted:

·        All the UI features i.e. screen design, navigation etc is finalized and implemented.

·        The Application is successfully installed on the SIT server.

·        The UI test cases have been written and reviewed.

·        UI testing tools like Pixel perfect etc. have been successfully installed and team member sufficiently trained in the use of the same.

Conclusion: Whilst, a lot of emphasis placed on the functional aspects of the application, in today’s day and age, UI of the application is assuming increasing importance and for a very good business reason. Hence, UI testing should be considered as a “must have” step and not just as a “nice to have” step in your overall localization process for the application. When it comes to testing, it’s strongly recommended to perform, GUI testing as part of your overall testing efforts.