In software testing field there are different types, methods and strategies. One of the testing types is visual testing. In this article we will check out together:
- What is visual testing?
- Why visual testing is important?
- What is manual visual testing?
- Challenges in manual visual testing
- What is automated visual testing?
- Advantages of visual testing
- Disadvantages of visual testing
What is visual testing?
Visual testing is a testing type which evaluates visual elements of an application or software. It evaluates the developed software or app to be consistent with the design provided by the design team.
Basically in visual testing User Interface getting tested to verify design elements such as colors, images, fonts, layouts etc getting shown properly on different devices and view ports. Sometimes it is also needed for visual testing to check the UI of the application in different operating systems and browsers.
Why visual testing is important?
Visual testing is an important type of testing for the reason that it finds bugs which other type of UI testing are unable to. It is a vital testing phase to ensure user experience (UX) is satisfying. From fully manual to fully automated visual testing there different types which some of the includes:
- Manual
- Pixel by pixel
- Dom based
- AI driven
Visual testing can be done with a single methodology or combining 2 or 3 methodologies together. It is recommended to conduct more automated approaches for visual testing as the number of releases increasing.
Recently AI visual testing has become efficient and comprehensive method for finding visual bugs.
What is manual visual testing?
Manual visual testing is more like find the differences in images game. As automated functional testing doesn’t help much in visual testing a lot of companies use manual testers to detect visual bugs on the Front end side of the application or software.
Usually the tester has a base page, it can be design pages delivered by product design team. Then Tester evaluates the final product with the base image to find the differences in visual elements such as fonts, color, images etc with final product.
Challenges in manual visual testing
Manual visual testing can bring challenges by itself. Here’s some the challenges you may get encountered with:
- Human mistake
As manual testing is done by people, there is always the possibility of error and mistakes by humans. Testers may miss certain issues or misinterpret visual clues, leading to inaccurate results.
- Time-consuming
Manual testing can be really time consuming specially when the AUT is a complex one. In manual visual testing tester should check out each page and component to find the mistake, which can be very time consuming.
- Inconsistency
Usually one part of the application or software is delivered to one tester to have more productivity. But sometimes it’s not possible due to lack of resources and as a result multiple testers work on the same project at the same time. Because Testers can evaluate differently the design elements, it can lead to inconsistency finally in the product.
- Limited scope
Sometimes manual visual testing is unable to test all possible scenarios and edge cases and as a result more bugs are missed and a lower quality product delivered.
- Costly
Manual visual testing can be costly as there is need for multiple testers with long testing hours. This is more true when the project is complex and large.
To overcome these challenges some companies consider using automated visual testing instead of Manual.
What is automated visual testing?
Automated visual testing uses different tools and viewpoints to detect the differences in base design and final product automatically.
When the tester perform automated functional test, software and tolls like cypress or selenium takes an screenshot on each step and then it is provided to tester for further evaluation.
Advantages of visual testing
- Visual testing helps identify cross browser visual bugs.
- It can help in identifying bugs in UI design and behaviour. Incorrect position of elements, alignments, contrasts are some of the bugs that can be detected by visual testing.
- By visual testing UX is improved and it ensures UI works as expected
- It’s a user friendly testing. It can easily understood and performed.
Disadvantages of visual testing
- It can be time consuming specially when it is done by manual testing.
- It requires some sort of knowledge and skills in design side. Testers who perform visual testing are recommended to know basic principles of design and front end
- It is not a comprehensive testing type. it only detects visual bugs and not functional errors.