UI Testing: A Comprehensive Guide

This GUI testing method requires testers to have a deep understanding of the performance requirements of the AUT as well as skills in software testing. Due to the realities of time constraints and resource availability, it may be impractical to try to cover an entire AUT with exploratory testing. These tests are not as repeatable as scripted tests, which is a major drawback for regression testing. Further, relying on exploratory testing alone can create concern in product managers or customers that code will not be covered and defects will be missed.

• You can conduct this GUI testing method at any point in the development phase where user feedback is needed.
• Likewise, during scripted testing, there may be some decisions available to testers including the ability to create new tests on the fly.
• You don’t just want to know that the car can move forward, turn, and stop.
• However, Automation is highly suggested for the GUI testing process.
• It occurs during system testing, which is a black-box testing method where no knowledge of the underlying code is necessary.

Likewise, during scripted testing, there may be some decisions available to testers including the ability to create new tests on the fly. For that reason, it’s helpful to think of scripted testing and exploratory testing as being two ends of a continuum rather than polar opposites. The hybrid tests are the different approach in order to perform GUI testing at the current time. It is a beneficial technique for non-technical background users to develop a test case by recording their sessions. And after that, the user who is familiar with coding can further control these recorded tests technically.

Example GUI Testing Test Cases

If you give your user a poor UI, they won’t care an iota if your app’s underlying API works like a charm. Not caring about your application’s UI is a sure way to transform your customers into former customers. As we mentioned in the introduction to this post, use GUI and UI testing interchangeably. However, a graphical user interface is only one of the possible types of user interfaces available. Therefore, we could say that GUI testing is a subset of UI testing.

UX testing requires the identification and recruitment of user testers that accurately represent the target user base, such as novices, experienced users, young people, older adults, etc. While it is not necessary to have a very large group of users, it is important to cover the expected user personas. Recruiting user testers may be a time-consuming and potentially costly process.

Challenges and Limitations of GUI Testing

A normal User first observes the design and looks of the Application/Software and how easy it is for him to understand the UI. If a user is not comfortable with the Interface or find Application complex to understand he would never going to use that Application Again. That’s why, GUI is a matter for concern, and proper testing should be carried out in order to make sure that GUI is free of Bugs. It is the UI of the Application which decides that a user is going to use the Application further or not. In above example, if we have to do GUI testing we first check that the images should be completely visible in different browsers.

In GUI testing, sometimes executing the Manual GUI testing can be a repetitive and tedious process. However, Automation is highly suggested for the GUI testing process. By using these tools, we can easily detect the loopholes rather than implementing the GUI testing manually. However, the unit and interface testing cannot assess all areas of a system, particularly the crucial features of workflow and usability.

Why is GUI Testing Important?

Once you create the recording, are you able to rearrange test steps? He/she would never be going to use that Application again if a user is not happy with the interface or unable to identify the Application’s difficulties in order to understand it. Because of the above scenarios, graphical user interface testing must be implemented to ensure that GUI testing delivers a defect-free application. In order to do user interface testing, AutoIt employs a combination of simulated keystrokes, mouse movement, and window manipulation.AutoIt is a free, open-source automation language for Windows. It’s a scripting computer language that’s similar to BASIC and is used to automate the Microsoft Windows user interface.

While test scripts must be created by an experienced tester with knowledge of the system, less experienced testers can perform the actual testing. Finally, test scripts can be reused in the future for regression testing, and can also be automated for greater efficiency. TestComplete is a GUI test automation tool that tests every desktop, web, and mobile application openly integrates within the SDLC ecosystem, is used by both technical and non-technical users. Delivers the quality of your application with incredible scale and efficiency.SmartBear Software’s TestComplete is a fully comprehensive automated testing platform.

How to Write a GUI Test Plan

This is because a GUI allows graphical objects to vary in appearance and placement on the screen. Fonts may be different, window colors or sizes may vary but the system output is basically the same. This would be obvious to a user, but not obvious to an automated validation system. Some functionality of the system may only be accomplished with a sequence of GUI events. For example, to open a file a user may first have to click on the File Menu, then select the Open operation, use a dialog box to specify the file name, and focus the application on the newly opened window. Increasing the number of possible operations increases the sequencing problem exponentially.

Manual UI testing involves a human tester manually performing interactions with the UI without the help of any tools or test script. They have to do everything from planning for what to test, design the test case, perform the actual testing, and document the results. Certain supporting technologies such as Google Sheets can be leveraged to help them accomplish those tasks faster, but the core activity – testing – must be done manually. It is a commercial cross-platform GUI testing tool developed by Froglogic that is used to test applications using a variety of GUI technologies such as Flex, Android, JavaFX, Qt, and others. It will run on Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and QNX, among other operating systems. We may execute the sets of scripts and analyze the whole logging and performance data using the Squish tool.

This tool was beta-tested by thousands of the provider’s own employees but not by end-users prior to its initial release. Only after the product was released into production did the provider begin receiving end-user feedback, which was overwhelmingly negative due to privacy concerns. Early UX testing would likely have revealed these concerns and saved the provider millions of dollars in development costs.

However, UI is a broader concept that can include both GUI and Command Line Interfaces (CLIs). A CLI allows a user to interact with a computer system through text commands and responses. Although CLIs predate GUIs, they are still in use today and are often preferred by system administrators and developers. This website provides tutorials with examples, code snippets, and practical insights, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced developers.

GUI testing is the validation of user interface functions or features that are visible to users and should meet business requirements. It is also called UI testing, which stands for ‘User Interface Testing’. Ranorex Studio offers graphical user interface testing a set of automated GUI testing tools that will make your test process faster and more effective. In the absence of such documents, scenarios can be developed in consultation with developers and customers/customer representatives.