What is User Testing?

User Testing is one of the forms of software testing that recently has become important for todays business’ product success. This is a unique method of software testing that involves a process that is used in the design process and particularly user testing is done by a group of humans who evaluate a software application or product or prototype.

What is the Significance of User Testing for Businesses?

User testing is a process that is used to test the interface and functions of a website, application, mobile app< or service. Specifically, this user testing review is taken up by real users who perform uat testing process in realistic conditions. These users give real-time feedback and experiences with user testing of websites, apps, and prototypes. This sort of crucial feedback can be used to make recommendations and improvements to the product.

Therefore, this user testing process helps to gain valuable insights from various users on the amount of time it takes to complete various tasks and helps to know about rapid customer feedback. Moreover, by performing usability testing, it gives first-hand information for businesses about the website, app, or product whether it is ready to be launched for real-users.

How to do User Testing?

1. Define test objectives in detail:

A clear outline that covers user testing goals should be the first step to start with. Testing objectives should be properly defined by the testing team and consistency should also be maintained.

2. Select a suitable testing method

Most adequate testing method should be worked upon and decided. Some of the best testing methods are remote user testing, card-sorting, A/B testing, individual in-depth interviews, focus groups, etc.

3. Select the required users

Select at least 3 to 5 users who will contribute to identifying key issues. A user persona based on the organization’s requirement should be created. Factors pertaining to the user persona are age, gender, location, education, profession, income, technical proficiency, etc.

4. Find a suitable location

It would be much better to test in person. The reason being their behaviour can easily be studied and a productive conversation can take place. If the user is able to visit the client’s office (who wants to conduct testing), then It will be really good for drawing meaningful conclusions about a product. On the contrary, if the user cannot visit in person, then virtual meetings can be taken up.

5. Moderate the test

The quality of testing is measured by checking how well the tests run. A tester can select certain focus groups who might be able to provide valuable feedback about a product and a proper moderator for the user testing should be made available.

6. Document the test result

All the user test findings should be well-documented in the form of a report. This report will provide key insights as to what worked and what didn’t from a testing perspective.

Advantages for Businesses with User Testing are:

– Gives an effective understanding of customer experience

– Derives insights and gives real-time feedback on user experiences about the product

– Helps to give first-hand information about the product as real users test the product

– Facilitates as a perfect stage validation for design issues if any

– States or identifies if any improvements are required for the product

When Should User testing be Taken up?

Typically, User testing should be taken up at every point and rather should be an integral part of the iterative design process. This type of testing should essentially be taken up in the initial design phase, sometimes even by using good and effective designs with paper prototypes.

During the digital prototyping phase, they should evolve clickable prototypes. And even at the end phase of final phase, user experience testing should be taken up, as it helps to refine what has been built in case of any changes required.

There are various types of user testing that form an integral part of this type of testing that has been detailed below.

What are the Different Types of User Testing?

Usability Testing:

This is a specific type of user testing that is done by real users to see how easy it is to use a website product or application. The major goal of usability testing is to know how humans interact with the product and the primary importance is to improve the product design. This form of testing aims at how real users are able to accomplish typical goals, tasks with a product when testing is done under controlled conditions.

Some of the benefits of usability testing are it helps to save time and costs as if it is taken up early helps to know where there are bugs or flaws while using the product. Early detection of bugs ensures faster methods to improve the product and it typically saves both time and cost.

Moreover, in today’s competitive world, creating average products will not assure business success. Hence, only those products with outstanding user experience (UX) will vow the customer and are bound to delight customers and deliver a great customer experience (CX).

Tree Testing:

This form of user testing is the simplest form of testing wherein users are given a tree-like sitemap of an application or a website. They are instructed to navigate without the distraction of visual elements and check how they would move in order to find something. Some of the common tools that can be used for testing are UserZoom, Treejack, etc.

Remote Usability Testing:

This is an important method of remote user testing wherein an insight platform is used to record the screen and voice of the participants as they interact and test the product in their natural environment.

This user testing process helps to gather feedback from real people for products and essentially their true experiences give proper insights about the product.

This product feedback and outcomes are unbiased as the testing is performed by users in remote areas from various geographical locations. There are two methods of remote usability testing named as moderated and unmoderated usability testing methods.

Open Card Sorting:

In this method of testing, testers are asked to sort navigation items into different categories which are created by testers. Specifically, users are asked to organize cards into groups based on how they feel appropriate and then name each group and label that group.

This testing method is more commonly used for existing information architectures or organizing products on a site. The user testing software tools that can be used to do this sort of testing are Optimalsort and Whimsicalsort.

Closed Card Sorting:

This method of testing can be categorized as a summative variation of open card sorting. Here the categories are already named and the tester only names where the navigation item belongs. The same tools of open card sorting can also be used here.

Remote Card Sorting:

This is conducted on a remote card sorting session and user works independently via their own computers to simply sort the cards. There are many user testing tools available to perform this sort of testing and some of these tools are Optimalsort, and Simple card sort are a few among them.

Focus Groups:

Specifically, 3 to 6 focus groups with each group consisting of 8 to 10 participants are aimed to identify themes within a dataset. This sort of focus group testing is taken up during the strategy phase of the project.

Qualitative Attitudinal User Testing:

In this method, only a small group of participants try to understand how they feel about a particular product. They keenly analyse the architecture, design of the product when users interact with it. The results are used to analyze the product’s effectiveness and based on inputs required changes are made.

Quantitative Behavioral User Testing:

In this method, at least 20 participants are required and often might require even more participants. The user experience researchers look for the patterns from the collected data and always prefer more users to have as it gives more accurate data when a good number of participants understand the product.

What are the Basic Elements and Process of User Testing?

Create a Prototype:

A prototype is an effectively an early model of a product that usually has limited functionality. It is essential that this early design concept should be learned more and it is done by creating a prototype.

Develop/Create a test plan:

It is important to have a test plan in place with what is to be tested (features, functionalities, tasks, etc.) and how the process will measure the product. The success or fail rate of test in specific product areas is to be taken up which will be notified in this test plan.

Recruit participants for User testing:

It is highly important to recruit participants and the sales teams of stakeholders can be contacted to get some customer contacts. It is preferable to have at least 3-5 testers and it is equally important to schedule the tests with good breaks between tests to get the best results.

Choose a suitable test location:

It is always preferable to have testing in person as body language clearly can be read. Even a remote meeting either with skype or hangout can also be planned. But, it is preferable to have a compatible meeting place with the least distraction to ensure the best results.

Run/perform the test:

The most critical aspect of user testing is this phase wherein the quality of testing is heavily dependent on how well you run the test and communicate by moderating effectively. The real users should be given enough time and should be told to experience the app or product as real-time users and take their inputs and feedback.

Record/Document test results:

It is important to summarize the findings in an effective way to within spreadsheets, audio and video recordings of results, or even a screen recording, as the case may be. Even a recording with a webcam can also be taken up. A proper understanding of the results through the documented formats should be used to get analyse the entire feedback of the user testing.

Conclusion

Today’s businesses achieve success only if their product, app, or website is effective and delivers great customer experience (CX), which is effectively achieved through a proper QA testing process. User testing is one important testing method that is performed by a group of real users to get an overview or understanding about the product.

This sort of user testing helps to improve the product design, as real users test ideas in real scenarios to understand better. Importantly, the insights gained from observing how actual users use your product are very crucial for product success. Leverage user testing services by testing services provider to get a complete understanding of your product, website or mobile application to be ensured of getting an effective product that delivers great UX.

The post User Testing Guide – What, Types and How to Perform Testing first appeared on TestingXperts.

1. An overview of UI testing automation
2. Benefits of UI testing automation
3. UI test automation framework overview
4. Four core building blocks of the UI test automation framework
5. Major UI Testing automation frameworks
6. How to select the right UI testing automation framework?
7. How to build a UI test automation framework?
8. Top 10 UI Testing Automation best practices
9. Conclusion

Today, customers have become digitally advanced and need high-quality apps with an amazing User Interface (UI). Undoubtedly the user interface is the first thing that catches today’s digital customer’s attention. If the UI is not impressive enough, then the chances of users switching to a competitor’s platform are much higher. Therefore, all small, medium and large businesses should ensure their apps’ proper and responsive UI to deliver a great user experience (UX) with an intuitive UI. But how can businesses achieve great UI for their apps? It is through leveraging UI testing automation which has been detailed in this blog.

An overview of UI testing automation

UI test automation is validating the proper functioning of UI elements and the front end of an application to enable seamless communication with users on the screen. During automated UI testing, every minute detail of all features of an application’s UI, such as

• Input controls (checkbox, buttons, lists, etc.)

• Navigational controls (search fields, icons, sliders, etc.)

• Information components (notifications, messages, Window pop-ups, etc.)

• Containers (Accordion)

are verified to ensure the app works the same way end-users intend. There are many benefits of UI testing, due to which its significance is high in the software industry.

Benefits of UI testing automation

• Ensures proper functioning of UI elements

• Ensures delivering a great UX

• Helps to increase test coverage as compared to manual testing

• Ensures faster test execution and debugging

• Allows reusability of test scripts

• Delivers accurate test results

• Eliminates the chances of human-prone errors

• Saves time and cost

Undoubtedly, there are many benefits to UI test automation. However, its success relies on the UI test automation framework used to perform testing. Therefore, let us now understand in detail UI test automation frameworks.

UI test automation framework overview

A UI automation testing framework is a collection of libraries that work together. It is not a single tool or process but a collection of tools and techniques working together to support UI test automation of any application. The framework helps to make UI test automation code reusable, maintainable, and stable. It also saves businesses from costly defects. Various frameworks (open-source and commercial) are available in the market. However, testers can even choose to build their custom test automation frameworks that might be off-the-shelf or custom-made, all these frameworks comprise four core building blocks.

Four core building blocks of the UI test automation framework

The package manager:

The package manager helps to access various features of the building blocks of the UI test automation framework. It helps to load the required specific libraries for each block into the framework and declares their version numbers. The version numbers are significant when there are different versions of libraries, and they might have changes, bugs, or features that are not needed in the framework. The package manager not only gives access to all libraries but also provides an easy reference for plugins, scripts, shortcuts, and more.

The runner:

To run the automated checks, a runner is required. A runner reads files that testers create and tells which checks are to be run. The runner enables testers to create the shell of an automated check such that whatever is placed inside the shell will be executed.

The UI driver:

A UI driver interacts with an application UI in real-time and programmatically sends instructions to the browser to do things like click links, fill forms, detect if elements exist on a page, etc.

The assertion library:

The assertion library determines if the flow of UI test automation has been successful or not, resulting in a pass or fail, and tells if something has changed in the system. Usually, some data is extracted near the end of test automation to determine if expectations are confirmed. The assertion library helps to compare the expectation with the captured data.

Let us now look at various frameworks testers can leverage for UI testing.

Major UI Testing automation frameworks

Selenium:

Selenium is an open-source test automation framework that supports multiple programming languages, OS, browsers, and platforms. Selenium automates web browser interaction, where test scripts are written to perform different user actions on the web application UI, making Selenium apt for UI Testing.

Appium:

Appium is an open-source test automation framework used to test native, hybrid, and mobile web apps. It is highly flexible and supports various programming languages, OS, and browsers. Appium enhances code reusability as the same API can be used for running tests on multiple platforms/OS.

Cypress:

Cypress is an open-source test automation framework that allows fast, easy, and reliable automated UI testing. It runs on JavaScript and is considered one of the best test automation frameworks. It allows parallel testing and can easily be integrated with CI tools. It comes with a recording feature that allows recording test automation processes and automatically captures screenshots.

Serenity:

Also known as Serenity BDD, it is an open-source library that is used for writing regression tests and acceptance tests. Serenity provides detailed test automation reports and tells what tests have passed or failed. It is Java-based and has a JS version called SerenityJS for front-end developers, making it one of the best test automation frameworks for UI test automation.

Playwright

This open-source Node.js library allows you to automate the Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit browsers. One of the significant advantages of Playwright is its capability to support multi-page scenarios, auto-wait APIs, network interception, and emulate various device screen sizes, geolocations, and more. Moreover, Playwright allows parallel test execution, improving the overall test time and performance.

Puppeteer

Developed by Google’s Chrome team, Puppeteer is another open-source Node.js library that automates Chromium or Chrome browser actions. Puppeteer is ideal for form submissions, UI testing, keyboard input, and more scenarios. It’s powerful and offers features like generating screenshots and PDFs of pages, crawling a SPA, and capturing a timeline trace to help debug performance issues.

NightwatchJS

NightwatchJS is an end-to-end testing framework based on Node.js. It offers seamless integration with continuous integration systems, making it an ideal solution for automating testing workflows. NightwatchJS simplifies the testing process through its easy-to-write syntax and supports CSS and XPath selectors.

Espresso

Espresso is Google’s open-source Android UI testing framework. Espresso is well-regarded for its stable UI test automation capabilities for Android apps. Its API is small, predictable, and easy to learn, which aids in writing concise and reliable Android UI tests. The Espresso testing framework is synchronized with Android’s lifecycle and operations, reducing the likelihood of test flakiness.

XCUITest

For iOS app developers, Apple’s XCUITest is an excellent choice. It offers a robust and efficient method for UI testing of iOS applications. XCUITest is a part of the XCTest framework, and it can test the UI and interact with the application just like a user would, making it an effective way to replicate and predict user behaviour. Since XCUITest is an Apple-supported tool, it offers deep integration with Xcode, its IDE.

There are various frameworks available for UI testing, but the dilemma is how to select the best one from the available options.

How to select the right UI testing automation framework?

Understand testing requirements:

Even before selecting the framework, the testers should first understand the testing requirements, such as faster test execution, simple reporting, full coverage, etc. Also, testers should decide the most important critical areas that need to be tested on priority, then determine who will own the framework? And how will the framework be implemented and maintained?

Check the budget:

This is the most important step as it involves deciding the budget. It is essential to determine the budget beforehand for selecting an appropriate framework. Based on the budget available, there are three framework options to choose from, i.e., Open source, Commercial, and Customized.

Consider the technology stack:

Another critical point to consider while selecting a framework is that the chosen framework should support all programming languages and operating systems. Also, to conduct UI testing of mobile apps, the framework must support mobile platforms (Android and iOS).

Compare and select the framework:

Conduct deep research and prepare a list of frameworks that best suits the business and project needs. Next, compare the list of frameworks based on their respective pros and cons and then select the best out of all the available options.

Apart from the ways mentioned for selecting the framework, testers can even choose to build their framework as per their requirements.

How to build a UI test automation framework?

• Identify the essential test cases that are to be executed

• Configure code analysis and coverage tools to ensure maximum test coverage

• Prepare test strategy for testing new features into the builds

• Set up a standardized testing environment for UI testing and automate deployments

• Define the entry and exit criteria for each run

• Report and fix critical bugs

• Set up a monitoring and defect management process to detect and report critical issues earlier

It should be noted that the success of UI test automation does not solely depend on the frameworks. The major of it depends on the way the test is executed. Therefore, testers should know the best practices of automated UI testing.

Top 10 UI Testing Automation best practices

• Analyze testing needs and software requirements even before starting UI test automation

• Testers should not rely only on UI test automation; instead, they must execute other types of tests as well

• Testers should follow a proper naming convention for test cases to find specific test cases quickly

• Always use real devices for android UI testing

• Avoid using Sleep Timeout, i.e., sleep () to pause UI tests. Instead, leverage features like Selenium’s implicit and explicit waits

• Leverage headless browser testing tools like Puppeteer (provided by Google) to increase UI testing efficiency

• Do not run all tests across all target browsers; instead, investigate which test cases really need to be executed in different browsers and then leverage grid testing tools

• Always ensure to take screenshots to identify the causes of test failure

• Separate low severity and low priority bugs from main test execution to save time

• Always ensure to set up detailed test reports to make informed decisions

Conclusion

Undoubtedly an application’s UI plays a significant role in creating the first impression on the end-user. If the UI is impressive, the work is half done. Otherwise, the chances of losing a customer are high. Thus, UI testing has become essential for all businesses, irrespective of their size and industry. By leveraging UI testing, businesses can be assured that their app’s UI elements would work seamlessly and deliver a great CX. Therefore, businesses should leverage UI testing from a next-gen QA and software testing services provider to get an impressive app UI and deliver a great UX.

The post UI Testing Automation – An Overview and Best Practices first appeared on TestingXperts.

Contents
1. What is Automated UI Testing and Web UI Testing?
2. Benefits of Automated UI Testing
3. Why Should Businesses Leverage Automated UI Testing for Web?
4. Challenges with Web UI Automation Testing
5. How to Overcome Web UI Automation Challenges?
6. What is the Importance of tools in Automated UI Testing for web?
7. Some of the leading Web UI Automation Testing Tools
8. Conclusion

What is Automated UI Testing and Web UI Testing?

Today, businesses are mostly dependent on their website or mobile applications. These modes of business activities revolve around customer interactions, order processing, and transaction processing.

Today, businesses are in a need for automating web-based tests in their testing processes. This helps to gain an effective user interface (UI) and evidently delivers great user experience (UX) to end-users. This effectiveness can all be achieved by leveraging web automated testing.

UI Testing is the process used to test the graphical user interface(UI) for any defects. Since automation is in demand globally, one of the important methods of UI testing is Web UI automation testing which is used to verify and validate the UI components of various web-based applications. Today’s end-user will appreciate websites, web-based apps or test automation mobile apps, only if they deliver great UX along with an effective UI that enables seamless performance.

Basically, the web UI testing revolves around the graphical user interface (GUI) testing that includes testing of both the functionality and usability of the website or the web app. By specifically using web UI testing, it refers to testing GUI elements like fonts, layouts, buttons, checkboxes, images, colours, etc.

Typically, this web UI testing process concentrates on how the look-and-feel of the website appears to end-users. When the web UI testing is done by using automated web UI testing tools then it is comprehensively named as automated web UI testing.

Benefits of Automated UI Testing

1. Results are accurate:

UI testing ensures that the testing of the user interface is carried out through a well-defined test strategy. This ensures that the entire UI testing activity comes out to be highly productive.

2. Improved coverage:

Through the implementation of UI testing, there is improved coverage as different tests such as functional tests, performance and stress tests, unit tests can be carried out on various devices at a faster rate.

3. Finding errors:

Finding regression errors is one of the main benefits of UI testing, as a lot of time is saved through faster detection of regression errors in the development process.

4. Detecting behaviour differences:

Behaviour differences can be detected between platforms such as Windows/Mac/Java versions, different operating systems and different web browsers.

5. Increased efficiency:

The entire process of UI testing is efficient as the bugs are detected early and testing issues are solved quickly.

Why Should Businesses Leverage Automated UI Testing for Web?

Hence, this sort of automated web application UI testing is performed to find defects either in the functionality or in the design of the website quickly. This web testing process is quite critical to achieving high-quality websites, but the testers face certain challenges while performing automated UI testing for the Web.

Challenges with Web UI Automation Testing

1. Multiple error handling:

Error handling is a tedious process with web UI automated testing. Especially when there are large projects with complex scenarios then typically error handling becomes tough.

2. Handling of frequent changes in UI and maintaining UI test scripts:

It is a known fact that web applications’ UI is prone to changes in terms of logic, adding new features, new integrations, or due to new functionalities during the development process Thus, the UI is more prone to changes and the UI testing scripts maintenance becomes a challenge.

3. Image comparison:

Handling of image comparisons is an important aspect of automated UI testing. It is a crucial factor as pixel variations in size, color, shape, and formats should be handled effectively while testing website UI.

4. Testing UI elements:

Web UI automation testers often face a lot of hardships while testing UI elements.

5. Longer test script execution time:

Typically, web UI automation requires more execution time depending on the number of test cases, and often it takes more time for execution.

6. Increasing testing complexity:

As today’s modern applications have complex features such as embedded frames, maps, flowcharts, diagrams and more. These make the UI tests to become more difficult and challenging while testing them.

7. ROI of UI Automation:

It is a fact that application UI keeps changing and simultaneously the test scripts should also be changed. This primarily increases the time spent on Web UI testing and it becomes difficult to calculate the ROI while continuously performing these UI tests.

How to Overcome Web UI Automation Challenges?

1. Choose right UI test automation tool:

It is essential to choose the right framework for web UI automation. Choose a right automation tool that easily integrates into your workflow. Moreover, selecting an effective web UI automation tool helps to record and playback the modules. It also helps the testers and QA teams to generate reports with screenshots to identify error sequences quickly.

2. Prefer to choose codeless automation testing tools:

It is necessary to prefer codeless web UI automation tools as these codeless UI automation tools eases the process of script maintenance, and testers can save both time and cost.

3. Choose Common UI Elements to ease UI testing process:

It is preferred that developers should use common UI elements such that it becomes easy for testers to understand them quickly without any difficulty.

4. Leverage an object repository:

It is preferred to choose a shared repository to reduce test maintenance and reduce the associated costs. In order to ensure effective UI test cases success, it is better to reduce the UI test cases in the initial testing stages and then slowly increase them as testing moves forward.

5. Maintain standard organizational-level best test automation practices:

It is necessary to maintain and follow the best code review processes across the enterprise to ensure best test automation practices are adopted.

Automated UI testing for Web is enabled by using various web UI automation testing tools which deliver numerous benefits while testing web applications.

What is the Importance of tools in Automated UI Testing for web?

1. Eases image comparison process:

For today’s modern applications, image comparison is vital and usually these images on a web application are either with a URL or with other images. Therefore, web UI automation tools can be used to support and ease image comparison.

2. Effective for functional testing:

End-users like web apps that have a simple and easy to use navigation which is possible with good functionality. Automated UI testing tools can be used to get information with respect to the functionality of web apps.

3. Supports cross-browser/platform testing:

These automated web UI tools support testing on multiple browsers, multiple platforms and also on various latest devices. The web apps are tested for their performance across browsers and platforms to know their compatibility.

4. Easily Integrates with bug-tracking tools:

UI test automation tools support integration with bug tracking tools such as Bugzilla, JIRA, Mantis, Quality Center, etc. Evidently, this integration helps to log defects into any of the bug tracking tools and thus it becomes easy to track them.

5. Uniquely used for captcha automation:

It is an effective security measure across websites to enter captcha so as to block robots and ensure human angle in the website visitor. UI testing tools support captcha automation and introducing web UI tools with captcha codes becomes essential for businesses.

6. Helps to quickly generate reports:

These web UI application testing tools can be used to quickly get visual reports along with detailed logs. These reports become handy and can be shared across development and testing teams.

Some of the leading Web UI Automation Testing Tools

1. Selenium:

This is one of the most commonly used open-source test automation tool that is used to automated browsers. Selenium Testing supports multiple programming languages such as Java, C#, Python, etc. to create selenium test scripts. Selenium tool is best suited and used for all web applications across browsers.

2. ACCELQ:

ACCELQ is a leading codeless test automation and agile test management platform which is AI based and is a continuous testing platform. This tool is used for quality lifecycle management, API and UI end-to-end validations. It is an effective functional and test automation platform and is next-gen test management platform for manual and automation intelligent test planning and delivers change management.

3. Tricentis Tosca:

Tricentis Tosca is an effective automation tool that supports all testing activities ranging from test design, test automation to test reports along with analytics. It has special features such as dashboards, analytics, integrations, and effective test executions to support CI and DevOps practices.

This tool also offers a user-friendly UI and a rich feature set for designing, executing, implementing and optimizing API tests. These API tests can be used to test across all browsers, mobile devices, and various platforms.

4. QTP/UFT:

Unified Functional Testing (UFT) is an automation tool that provides functional and regression test automation for software applications and environments. UFT tool automates functional testing for web, mobile, API, RPA and enterprise applications by increasing the test coverage from the UI to API.

5. TestComplete:

TestComplete is one of the important automation testing tool that is used to test desktop, web and mobile applications. It is specifically used to build, test and run functional user interface tests with its much useful record and playback features. This tool supports all scripting languages such as JavaScript, Python, VBScript to name a few.

6. Katalon:

Katalon studio is the most widely used open-source test automation tool that can be used to test both web and mobile applications. This tool can be used together with Appium and Selenium. It primarily helps to quickly generate automated tests cross-platform and seamlessly integrates into CI/CD pipeline. Some of its features include an integrated development environment, a base level object repository, object spy and a typical browser plugin, etc.

Conclusion

Automated UI Testing for Web is a critical testing process which businesses should leverage to know about the functionality of various web app GUI features and how they function. Additionally, this web UI automation testing reduces regression testing efforts largely. But, there are certain challenges with respect to web UI automation testing that should be effectively handled by testers. By handling these challenges, it helps to evolve an effective user friendly website and web app that delivers great UI and UX to end-users.

Hence, automated Web UI testing should be leveraged to deliver an effective web application that delivers great satisfaction to end-users. Leverage next-gen testing services provider to ensure a quality web app to your users with thorough web UI automated testing.

The post Automated UI Testing Challenges and How to Overcome Them first appeared on TestingXperts.

1. What is UI Testing?
2. Why Do Businesses Need User Interface Testing?
3. Mobile and Web UI Testing Checklist
4. UI Testing Best Practices
5. Top 5 User Interface Testing Tools
6. Conclusion
7. How Can TestingXperts Help with UI Testing?

In today’s high-speed digital business world, thoroughly testing the user interface (UI) of web and mobile apps has become vital. As businesses struggle to improve user experience and deepen engagement, the importance of intense UI testing just can’t be emphasized enough. It doesn’t only ensure­ that interfaces work correctly but also that they are easy and intuitive to use a critical factor in keeping customers interested and loyal in a rapidly competitive market.

Rece­nt research emphasizes how crucial UI testing is. For example, a study from the Software Testing Industry found that about half of all software defects come from the­ user interface. What’s more, a survey shows that a whopping 85% of users say they’re less likely to revisit a website if they’ve had a bad user experience. All these figures clearly show a direct link between the quality of user experience and the success of a business.

So, UI testing isn’t just a ‘must-have’ but a crucial component for the success of a business. Today’s customers know their tech and expect digital tools to be top quality. That’s why mobile and web software development companies must implement effective UI testing in their development process. This guide covers everything businesses need to know to finetune all digital platforms to impress users and make the most significant impact possible.

What is UI Testing?

UI Testing is about testing the software application’s interface. It makes sure everything works right and feels easy to use. This testing includes things like buttons, menus, forms, and pictures. It makes certain that people will like the program. It is mainly of two types.

Mobile UI Testing means ensuring apps are responsive and work well on all phones and tablets. Because devices come in all shapes and sizes, it’s very important the interface works smoothly. This kind of check involves testing touch moves like Swiping and tapping to resizing and long pressing buttons. and making sure the visual elements like font size, spacing and color contrast are adapted seamlessly across devices of different resolution and orientation.

Compared to mobile UI Testing, Web UI Te­sting checks how the app works on different internet browsers. The goal is to make sure­ websites adjust properly on differe­nt screens and browsers. This testing is essential because it makes sure the application stays easy-to-use no matter how users access it.

Mobile and web UI testing are both essential parts of UI testing. They make sure apps both works right and feel easy to use, which keeps users liking the app and keeps them using it. By running these tests firmly, developers can find and fix things that might make the app more complicated, making it overall better and more user-friendly.

Why Do Businesses Need User Interface Testing?

In the digital age, where everything is accessible via mobile or web apps, user interface testing matters the most to businesses. It not only influences user experience but also turns users into loyal visitors to the app or website. UI testing makes sure the application’s interface is easy to use, quick, and without flaws, thus offering a positive user experience.

So, why do businesses do UI testing? They want to doublecheck their software’s operations. The tests make sure everything works as expected, and things such as buttons, text fields, and images align perfectly. For instance, users anticipate a certain action when they click a button. UI testing confirms it happens every time. Another reason is the compatibility of the software application. With many consumer devices and browsers, UI testing helps identify software consistency. This ensures consistent use, regardless of the user’s tech choice.

UI testing is also necessary for improving software quality. Companies can avoid expensive postlaunch fixes and enhance user satisfaction by finding and resolving issues before users come across them. This foresight saves time and money and protects the brand name. Lastly, UI testing is key for accessibility. It must make software usable for people having different disabilities. This test looks for adherence to accessibility regulations such as WCAG, ACA, etc., and makes sure the software can be used by many people and is inclusive.

Mobile and Web UI Testing Checklist

For mobile and web application UI testing, a detailed checklist is helpful as it provides a step-by-step method to analyze all vital parts of the user interface thoroughly. It aims for a positive user experience, and it leads the testers through the multiple aspects of a strong UI. It will help bring regularity in testing and help bring light to any problems that could impact the app’s usability and function.

Mobile UI Testing Checklist

• Check if the apps look and act right on dive­rse devices, including models, screen sizes, and systems. It needs to work as expected­ and look user-friendly on all popular devices. Don’t overlook each device’s unique features.

• Look at how the UI changes with screen rotation. Make sure the layout stays readable and handy in both portrait and landscape. It should change smoothly without negative user experience.

• Check out how well the app responds to touchscreen moves like swipes, taps, and zooms. See if gestures are correctly recognized quickly. Also, check if the animations work smoothly with these actions.

• Test how the app performs on different network conditions. Try it on Wi-Fi, 4G, 3G, and offline settings. It should load fast, use data well, and manage network changes or weak signals nicely.

• Keep an eye on how the app impacts the device’s battery. The app should not drain the battery, even during heavy use or running in the background.

• Try out push notifications in multiple situations. They should be clear, timely, and essential. Their behavior should be appropriate when the app is on, off, or in the background.

Web UI Testing Checklist

• Check on different browsers, latest and legacy, to ensure the web application is compatible. Look at alignment, colors, scripts, and clickable parts.

• Test the web app’s flexibility by analyzing the layout, seeing the content, and navigating on devices. Pay attention to phones and tablets.

• See how long the web app and its pages handle to load. Check on fast load times of images, scripts, and CSS files.

• Test all internal and external links in the app. Check where links go, that none is broken, and that all linked content is correct and new.

• Test all forms deeply for data check, submission process, and dealing with errors. Make sure error messages are clear and useful. The forms should handle data safely and quickly.

• Check how user-friendly the app is for users with disabilities.

UI Testing Best Practices

Businesses need to use the best UI Testing practices to create excellent, easy-to-use apps. This isn’t just about discovering bugs in the UI but also ensuring the app works smoothly, responds promptly, and is reachable to all. By sticking to these methods, QA teams can uncover issues faster, make testing more manageable, and, in the end, develop a product that goes above and beyond for users.

Focus on User Experience

This goes past ordinary functions to involve things like smooth navigation, attractive aesthetics, and total user happiness. It’s critical to use a testing style that focuses on the user, involving checking the UI for comfy design, clear steps, and stunning visuals. Understanding from a user point of view can show ways to improve usability and find out user likes.

Automate When Needed

Save time by automating repetitive and stable aspects of the UI. Tools like Selenium or Appium can automate jobs like regression testing and routine inspections, which are crucial in automated UI testing. Nonetheless, it’s critical to pair this with manual testing, especially for the subjective aspects, such as the general appearance and performance of the app.

Try out Real Devices and Setups

Testing on actual devices helps businesses see how the app acts in many real-life situations. This includes testing with different equipment and operating systems at different network speeds. It uncovers problems specific to a device and makes sure the application feels the same regardless of the platform.

Consider Accessibility

UI design must be inclusive and must adhere to accessibility guidelines. Tests like contrast assessments, heading structure, page structure and label name of the fields, etc., make sure the app is helpful. This ensures the app is helpful for everyone and supports social responsibility.

Carry Out Iterative Testing

Test frequently and early when developing. This quick method identifies problems promptly, which makes fixes easier and lowers costs. Also, it fits well with continuous integration and deployment procedures, making development smoother.

Ensure Different Browsers Work Well

Check that web apps run consistently on all browsers and versions. This involves testing performance, design, and functionality. With many browsers out there, such testing expands your reach and improves user experience.

Keep Up with UI Developments

UI developments move fast, and staying in the loop is essential. This encompasses grasping new design models, testing methods, and what users want. Keeping testing strategies updated with these trends keeps app modernized and appealing to users.

Log and Analyze Test Cases

It is crucial to have a detailed log of test cases and rechecking them regularly. This maintains the effectiveness of test cases with new app features and changes. It also enhances team knowledge sharing and provides clear future test references.

Top 5 User Interface Testing Tools

The right tools utilized in UI testing makes finding bugs and errors easy, speeding up repetitive tasks, thus saving time and resources. UI testing tools keep evolving with technology. Here are five leading UI testing tools, each with unique perks fitting various testing demands.

Sele­nium

This powerful free tool automates web browsers and works with multiple languages, like Java, C#, and Python. This makes it adaptable for different development scenes. Selenium can work with all main browsers and other testing structures. Its WebDriver part supports creating more robust test scripts that act like actual users.

Appium

Mainly used for mobile app testing, Appium is also an opensource tool. It exports Selenium’s abilities to mobile platforms, working with iOS and Android apps. It’s great because it tests native, hybrid, and mobile web apps using one­ API. This gives consistency in testing various mobile apps. Appium doesn’t need alterations to its code, making developers’ integration of UI testing easier.

TestComplete

This tool simplifies UI testing for desktop and web apps. Its friendly interface and code free test creation make it user-friendly and is effective for identifying and working with UI elements. Plus, it integrates easily with other tools to make continuous testing and delivery easy.

UFT (Unified Functional Te­sting)

UFT, previously titled QuickTest Professional, is a Micro Focus tool used for automated functional and regression testing. It supports various applications and is straightforward for developing and executing tests. Its top features include improved object recognition and integration with test management tools, enhancing teamwork and testing efficiency.

Ranorex Studio

This dynamic tool is handy for automating tests for web, desktop, and mobile applications. It’s known for its user-friendly interface and reliable object recognition. Using Ranorex, testers can design complex test scripts and scenarios, both with and without code. Its adaptability with other tools and systems makes it versatile for comprehensive UI testing in various development settings.

Conclusion

UI testing ensures web and mobile apps are the best they can be. In this guide, we talked about how critical UI testing is to online business. We provided checklists for mobile and web UI testing, best methods, and top tools in use. Manual ways or automated tools like Selenium, Appium, TestComplete­, UFT, and Ranorex can ensure streamlined UI testing. It’s not just about getting rid of bugs but also making apps easy and fun to use. By using best practices and tools, developers and testers can create products that satisfy the target audience. This highlights how vital thorough UI testing is to thrive in the digital space.

How Can TestingXperts Help with UI Testing?

TestingXperts UI testing service specializes in improving the user interface of web and mobile apps. As user experience is crucial for business success in today’s digital business world, we at TestingXperts, ensure that app is effective, user-friendly, and interactive. Our UI testing strategy is base­d on understanding recent technology trends and user requirements, so apps align with high quality and user-friendliness standards.

What Sets TestingXperts Apart in UI Testing?

All-inclusive Testing Approaches

At TestingXperts, our UI testing approach is detailed and systemized. We cover every phase, from the initial concept to the final rollout. Our testing includes a thorough analysis of functionality, compatibility, and responsiveness, promising a smooth user experience on any device or platform.

Skilled Team with Specialization

Our team excels in UI testing and has the knowledge needed to take on complex testing tasks. Our team remains updated on the latest UI design trends and testing best practices, ensuring your product remains cutting-edge.

Modern Tools and Technology

TestingXperts leverages advanced UI testing tools and tech, from automatic testing structures to cutting-edge analysis tools. This enhances our testing efficiency and effectiveness, fast tracking your product launch while ensuring top quality.

Testing Solutions Made for You

It’s clear every project is different, and that’s why TestingXperts provides customized testing solutions. We craft strategies that match your application’s specific needs. Whether a mobile app or a web platform, we always align our strategies with your business goals and customer’s needs.

Putting Users First

User-focused design is the core of TestingXperts’ QA strategy. We put a lot of emphasis on making sure that the app is bug free and appealing to your target audience. Moreover, we ensure it is easy-to-use and accessible. This helps leave a positive, long-lasting impact on your audience.

To know more, contact our QA experts now.

The post A Comprehensive Guide to UI Testing: Best Practices and Tools first appeared on TestingXperts.

]]> https://www.testingxperts.com/blog/Top-4-Challenges-of-API-Testing-and-How-to-Overcome-Them?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=blog-top-4-challenges-of-api-testing-and-how-to-overcome-them Tue, 03 Oct 2017 07:17:55 +0000 http://18.219.80.225/blog-top-4-challenges-of-api-testing-and-how-to-overcome-them/ The world is getting more and more connected with each passing day. It is believed that around 30 billion independent things will be connected to the internet by 2020. Now, with this pressure to move at a greater speed, the biggest stumbling block is to identify how to build a continuous approach to testing across ... Top 4 Challenges of API Testing and How to Overcome Them

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]]> The world is getting more and more connected with each passing day. It is believed that around 30 billion independent things will be connected to the internet by 2020. Now, with this pressure to move at a greater speed, the biggest stumbling block is to identify how to build a continuous approach to testing across multiple channels of engagement.

Contents

1. API Testing Overview

2. What are the benefits of API testing?

3. Challenges of API Testing

4. How to Overcome API Testing Challenges

5. What type of bugs are identified with API testing?

6. What are the tools for API testing?

7. Conclusion

API Testing Overview

The consumerization of IT is changing how applications are being developed. Rather than building a single, monolithic system installed on a server in a back office, modern applications are distributed within mobile devices and web browsers so users can gain access to services from anywhere and at any time. Modern applications are no longer autonomous; they comprise several service components tied together at runtime.

As a result, the end-user experience is not driven by the well-designed user interfaces we all use, but by application programming interfaces (APIs) that expedite interactions between applications, code modules, and back-end systems.

What are the benefits of API testing?

1. Completely Language-Independent:In API testing, there are several data transfer modes, the data can be exchanged using JSON or XML. Since these languages are used for development and are technology-independent, the teams can select any core language while performing the API tests.

2. Helps for Integrated User Experience: With API, embedding the content from any application or website is easier. This way of ease in delivering information is an important benefit as it helps to maintain an integrated user experience.

3. Protects from vulnerabilities and code breakage: API testing effectively helps to eliminate the vulnerabilities with its excellent conditions and inputs. These help in protecting the application from vulnerabilities caused due to the insertion of unknown code or due to code breakage.

4. Reduces testing time: The methodologies of API testing are excellent to minimize the time consumption. Unlike validation and functional testing, API testing is faster in performing more number of tests.

5. Increases Developers Productivity: For writing any code, there are very few instances where the developers start from a scratch. While designing API, there is a code base provided to help the time consumption of developers in writing code. This existing code base helps in limiting the differentiation in the code among the developers and also eliminates the time needed for creating new code.

6. Faster results at less cost: In API testing, there is no need for using large codes. By using the lesser code which is less than the GUI automated tests, these tests help to provide easier and faster test results with better test coverage. This results in achieving faster results at reduced testing costs. Also, the faster detection of errors helps in reducing the cost involved for manual testing.

The API is the intelligence behind this connected world. APIs allow companies to become more agile, and to work together in an integrated manner. However, while testing APIs, testers face several units of work, making it challenging for the testers to test the APIs. Below are the four major challenges experienced while testing APIs along with and suggested solutions.

Challenges of API Testing

1) Use case propagation

Traditional UI testing is limited to the testing functionality of the overall application. A tester construes the output against expected outcomes after exercising an input. However, API testing follows a different approach. Being the central hub of logic and the gateway to data for interfacing applications, use cases are near-infinite in API testing. Consequently, the number of required tests rapidly exceeds the competences of the technical staff responsible for test case design.

2) Access to connected systems

APIs pull data from multiple APIs and back-end systems, in which the resulting architecture looks like the roots of a tree extending wide and deep. Thus, it’s impossible to have access to every environment on this tree. The emulation of inaccessible resources is the key to avoiding testing bottlenecks. However, the old way of building custom mocks is proving too challenging. Besides, they cannot emulate race conditions for comprehensive performance and load testing.

3) Synchronous and asynchronous methods

Modern applications are intricate, and one API can link several microservices and other APIs. Accordingly, a single call on an API can prompt ‘n’ number of serial and parallel activities. The intricacies of an API can thus grow exponentially as it is combined with other API calls. And this complexity multiplies as testers feature in the calling order of APIs in test case design. Consequently, testing APIs must be managed in both separate and nuclear units of work.

4) API versioning

Versioning is a primary cause of rising complexity in API testing. Most systems have a degree of depreciation, which should be managed by an API with the help of versioning. The API must identify missing values and allocate some default to allow the old version to work. Moreover, it can be the case that some versions are called by some versions but not others.

How to Overcome API Testing Challenges

To overcome the above-listed challenges, a modern approach should be adopted that enables you to automate API tests and integrate them into a continuous delivery cycle.

Phase I: Integration level Testing

The integration test phase will focus on service interfaces and will make sure interface behavior and information sharing are working as specified.

Phase II: Process/Orchestration Testing

This phase covers:

• Business logic
• Sequencing
• Exception handling
• Process decomposition (including service and process reuse)

Phase III: Security and Governance Testing

In this phase, SOA / API is combined with Government and Regulatory compliance, which is incorporated into the entire project life cycle. This phase comprises Quality of Service policies on Performance, Security, and Transactions.

• Regulatory policies
• Business policies
• Audit policies
• Infrastructure policies

Phase IV: System Level Testing

This test phase will cover whether the technical solution met the defined business acceptance criteria.

What type of bugs are identified with API testing?

Identifies bugs related to Authentication: With API testing, it is easier to trigger the bugs raised because of entering unacceptable characters in the apps authentication field. Though the bugs are not considered as severe for the application, it can sometimes lead to app destruction.

Resolves the issue of Browser Adaptability: For any application, browser adaptability is one of the important needs. If the application fails to respond to any browser, then it can lead to dissatisfaction among the users and affect the brand reputation. Hence, by adopting the methods of API testing, it becomes simpler to identify and resolve the issues related to the app’s ability across browsers.

Identifies configuration errors on all devices: It is necessary for the apps to be compatible across the devices. If the app is unable to meet any device resolution, then this can raise complications for the app’s future and user’s interest. With API testing, it becomes easier to find out whether the app is compatible across devices and browsers to target the audience.

Finds the bugs related to accessibility: Users always prefer apps that are user-friendly and provide a simplified understanding of the app usage. Hence, it is essential to know the importance of adding the menu, help, and search sections on the homepage. An easily accessible app is always a top choice for users.

What are the tools for API testing?

Open-Source API Testing Tools:

• JMeter
• Rest-Assured
• Karate DSL
• Citrus Framework
• Parasoft SOAtest
• Rest Assured
• Tricentis

Commercial API Testing Tools:

• Katalon Studio
• SoapUI
• Postman
• Apigee

Conclusion

TestingXperts is proficient in a wide range of API protocols such as XML, SOAP, JSON, REST, Gdata, YAML, ATOM, RSS, and RDF, etc. Our end to end applications validation experience at various layers of the application helps in executing a successful API. Our expertise in leading industry tools for API testing for functional, load and security testing allows us to automate API test cases.

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