The responsibilities of a user interface are quite easy to understand from the name itself. It is that part of a web application with which the user will interact. The quality of a user interface has a significant role in determining the first experience of a user on your application or website. Also this field has a good future scope as every organization started focusing on their UIUX. Considering some UI UX course from a good institute would be a good option for upcoming job seekers..
The user interface design is a two-sided sword. This means that if it is designed properly, it can improve the quality of the application but when you create a faulty UI, it can destroy the reputation of not only the application but also your company as a whole. Due to all of these reasons, the developers have improved their focus on UI Testing in the modern application Development Industry.
However, many developers are new to the test automation industry and do not have a definite idea about UI testing. So, this article will act as a guide for informing all the critical factors that can affect the quality and your work experience while performing web testing of user interface (UI). We will also discuss certain important tools and platforms that can improve UI testing capabilities.
All you need to know about UI Testing
What is User Interface
We can define the user interface as the part of the software that will interact with the end user. Therefore, we can easily justify a good UI to be that piece of software that can help the user to complete his goal with minimal engagement. The standard of the user interface is directly proportional to the competition in the application industry. This means as the number of competitors begins to rise you also have to improve the quality of the application to maintain your position in this industry. So, with the help of UI testing, the developers can ensure that all the aspects of the user interface are working as expected.
UI testing is also useful for verifying the proper functioning of all the visual and auditory aspects of the application. This feature ensures that the application is pleasing to the end users and is capable of keeping them interested. Maintaining end-user satisfaction is another important factor that can help to improve the audience retention rates for your company.
The Basics of UI Testing
UI testing is also popularly known as GUI testing. It will verify the proper functioning of all the elements that the user will come in contact with. It ensures that all the visual elements are properly working in terms of performance and functioning. Using this form of testing, the developers can also ensure that all the visual elements of the application are completely bug-free. Websites consist of multiple web elements that are created with the help of different programming languages like JavaScript, CSS and numerous others. UI testing performs multiple test cases on all of these elements and properly ensures the validity of their efficacy. The developers must remember that these test cases mainly focus on all the areas that the user must be concerned about. It has nothing to do with the internal functioning of the application.
Some of the major visual elements that UI testing covers are the fonts, menus, text boxes, radio buttons, check boxes, colors toolbars and many others. Now, let us take a brief look at some of the important functionalities included in the UI testing test suite:
- The proper functioning of all the UI elements presents in the web application.
- The stability of the visual design is according to the physical aspects of the accessing device.
- Optimal performance of the web application irrespective of multiple use cases.
- To ensure proper usability according to the requirements of the user.
- To ensure that the user interface of the web application complies with the requirements of the modern user base.
Scope for UI Testing
Now, let us take a detailed look at some of the important test cases that UI testing helps to verify:
- Data Type Errors: This testing ensures that the users can only enter a valid set of data according to the field present on the web application. A good example of this testing is when the user has to enter his birth details or currency details.
- The Width of Fields: This form of testing ensures that all the fields on the application do not allow the users to enter any amount of data that exceeds the allocated space.
- Elements for Navigation: The navigation elements help the users to freely move about while using the web application. It also helps the users to find what they are looking for with minimal effort.
- Presence of a Progress bar: Progress bars play an important role while maintaining user engagement. This bar is highly essential when certain aspects of the web application take a significant period to complete loading. Thus, this bar will help to keep the user informed about the current status of the loading process.
- Table Scrolling: Tables are one of the most efficient ways to effectively display sets of data. So, the developers must implement table scrolling in case the table extends to the second page. This feature will allow the users to access all the data while still keeping the headings at the top.
- Error Logging: This feature is essential as it ensures that in case an error occurs during user interaction, the system will automatically log the error. The developers can later review the log file and resolve the error accordingly. This is yet another step towards maintaining optimal user satisfaction.
- Menu Items: Menu items will display all the activities and functions that are available on your web application. So, this testing will ensure that while the user accesses the menu, none other than the menu data is displayed on the screen.
- Proper Functioning of the Shortcuts: The shortcuts on a web application massively improve user satisfaction by reducing the number of steps to be followed for completing a particular task on the app. So, the developers must ensure that all the shortcuts on the web application are working as expected.
Various Approaches for Performing UI Testing
Commonly speaking, the developers can perform UI testing in two major forms. They are known as manual UI testing and automated UI testing.
While performing manual UI testing, the developers have to individually validate the functioning of all the elements regarding the user interface. It is a time-consuming process as a human developer has to individually check all the web elements. It is also prone to multiple errors that can arise due to human interaction. However, the developers must remember that certain UI elements are almost impossible to check without a human eye. For instance, no software can validate the proper placement of all the visual elements on the web application.
Automatic UI testing is a process of verifying all the user interface elements with the help of an automated test script. In this form of testing, there is almost no human intervention required. This also means that web development companies can practically conduct this form of testing for almost 24 hours. Since almost all the test cases are executed by computer software, there is very little possibility of overlooking. A recent survey also justifies that automated UI testing can help to reduce the testing period to almost under 2 days.
So, to develop an optimal UI testing environment, the developers must maintain the proper balance between automated and manual testing. It will help the web development companies effectively accomplish their ultimate goal of quickly delivering high-quality applications to the end users.
The Process of Creating UI Test Cases
Test scenario is one of the most important phases in the UI testing process. It acts as a document that defines how the application will be used in the real world. For instance, one successful scenario will be when the user can sign in using his login credentials like username and password. The quality assessment teams have to map various possibilities to create the test cases for properly verifying the user interface of an application. This ensures that they miss none of the important aspects of the user interface thus eliminating the possibility of any bug in the core framework. Like any other aspect of software testing, it is one of the best practices to perform UI testing on real devices, Browsers and operating systems.
In case the developers do not have access to an in-house testing lab, they can access real device clouds to meet this testing requirement. We will discuss more on the importance of cloud-based testing platforms in the latter part of this article.
Role of Tools and Platforms in UI Testing
Tools play a vital role in improving the testing satisfaction for any UI tester. As a developer, you must choose the correct user interface testing tool or platform to properly utilise the full potential of your testbench.
Let us elaborate more on this claim while using LambdaTest as an example.
LambdaTest is a cloud platform that developers can use to ensure that their modern web applications are cross-browser compatible. While defining cross-browser compatibility, we can say that it is the process of ensuring the application retains its optimal performance irrespective of the browser or the operating system. The developers can use LambdaTest automation testing platform to perform automate UI testing with multiple test frameworks across 3000+ real browsers, devices and operating systems combinations.
Some of the common names are Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Appium, Espresso, XCUITest, etc. LambdaTest improves the dependency of the final test results by conducting the test cases on real devices. This process also helps to eliminate the hassle of maintaining a massive device testing lab. Multiple global application development Industries use LambdaTest for UI testing.
The Conclusion
So, we can easily conclude that UI testing plays a significant role in improving end-user satisfaction for any form of software. In this competitive application Development Industry, it is almost impossible for any company to lightly consider the importance of having a proper and functional UI. It is also important for the application development companies to provide proper awareness among the testers about this subject.
As the application Development Industry begins to become more and more automated, it becomes significantly impossible to leave any room for error. For better understanding, the developers should consider UI testing as one of those factors that can guarantee a successful future in the Application Development Industry. Lastly, it is also a good idea to use proper tools so that beginners can get themselves accustomed to this form of testing.
Author Bio: Vixit Raj is Product Growth and Communication Specialist in LambdaTest : The
Cross Browser Web App Testing Platform. He is an E&C engineering graduate and in the
digital marketing domain for the last 5+ years. He always tries to stay updated with the
latest advancements in technology, product growth/marketing, software testing and coding.
