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GUI testing for Web Applications and Smart devices – An overview

Graphical User Interface (GUI) is the front-end that serves as an interface for the end-users when in any kind of information processing and data storage.
Generally, all major operating systems provide a graphical user interface. Further, the increasing use of multimedia as part of the GUI, sound, voice, motion video, and virtual reality interfaces have become a part of the GUI for many applications.
Therefore, making GUI Testing an important type of testing for Web applications and Smart devices.
Here at Ibmi Media, as part of our Web development Services, we regularly help our Customers to perform GUI Testing and Applications.
In this context, we shall look into GUI testing for Web applications along with GUI testing for Smart Devices.

More about GUI testing on Web applications

Before going into details of GUI testing on web applications, we will see what is GUI testing.
What is GUI testing
GUI Testing involves the process of testing the application’s user interface and detecting if the application is functionally correct.
This testing is a commonly known form of Usability Testing of software or website.

The tools that we commonly use for GUI testing are Abbot, AutoHotkey, Cobra, CubicTest, Dogtail, Selenium for Web UI testing, and so on.
GUI testing is a performance assessment of a software or website in terms of ease of use, versatility, friendliness with the user, visual impact, etc.


How GUI testing is done on Web applications ?

GUI testing on web applications involves checking the usability of web applications and whether they use appropriate content, color, navigation, images.
It checks the following functionalities:
1. Firstly, the usage of Frames in the application.
2. The existence of complex URLs
3. Identifying pages with missing controls and no support for navigation.
4. Removing irrelevant data on the page.
5. Identifying forms which take a long time to download and try to optimize them.
6. Checking whether there is any problem while downloading.
GUI testing on Smart devices

The importance of decent and attractive GUI can be felt more significantly in smart devices environment.

GUI testing can be the toughest part especially while testing on a smart device.
It involves checking missing controls and knowing the purpose of the screen.
Following are three important factors to consider while testing GUI on smart devices:
1. Size
2. Style
3. Location

Size: We need to ensure that the user can see the screen completely without any scrolling. Testing has to be done with different sizes and resolutions since the controls in smart devices do not remain static. Though emulators are good for this purpose they cannot match with the real device.

Style: The application design should match the style of controls. Although this may not affect the usability or functionality, a consistent look at the application will help to build a friendly relationship between the user and the application. However, the font size, color, etc should always match specific situations such as Red color for Error messages, Green for success, Yellow for warnings.

Location: We need to ensure that controls are placed at appropriate locations and order is proper for any task which will be easier for the user. This will help the users to complete their tasks without any confusion.

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Conclusion

This article covers GUI testing which refers to testing the functions of an application that are visible to a user. In the example of a calculator application, this would include verifying that the application responds correctly to events such as clicking on the number and function buttons.
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, and so on.

What we check in GUI Testing?
1. Testing the size, position, height, width of the visual elements.
2. Verifying and testing the error messages are displayed or not.
3. Testing different sections of the display screen.
4. Verifying the usability of carousel arrows.
5. Checking the navigation elements at the top of the page.

GUI Testing is a software testing type that checks the Graphical User Interface of the Software.

The purpose of Graphical User Interface (GUI) Testing is to ensure the functionalities of software application work as per specifications by checking screens and controls like menus, buttons, icons, and so on.

Benefits of GUI Testing:
1. Tests the user interface from the users perspective.
2. Efficiently reduces the number of risks towards the end of development life cycle.
3. Offers developers and testers ease of use and learning.
4. Helps validate the compliance of various icons and elements with their design specifications.