5 Tips for Visual Testing

Visual testing is a crucial but often overlooked part of the software development process. While functional testing verifies that applications operate as intended, visual testing validates the visual design and user experience. With users increasingly judging programs based on appearance and aesthetics, ensuring pixel-perfect visual fidelity is key to gaining trust and satisfaction. This article will provide 5 tips to help strengthen your strategy for visual testing. From planning what to test to automating tests and monitoring in production, these best practices can help catch issues early to deliver top-notch visual quality.

• Plan Your Visual Tests

Proper planning is essential for effective visual testing. Taking the time upfront to map out the user experience helps ensure comprehensive test coverage. Visual tests should be planned for all major application screens, including layout of elements like menus, buttons and forms. Features like colour schemes, animations and different states like errors must also be tested. Documenting anticipated visuals early allows testing to verify design intentions are accurately implemented in code. Any issues found during this planning stage can be addressed before significant development work, saving valuable time and resources.

• Automate Where Possible

Visual testing involves comparing screenshots and validating visual consistency across interfaces. Much of this work can be repetitive, such as ensuring all buttons use the same colours or that text is uniformly sized on every page. Automating these checks through tools saves valuable time by removing the manual effort for repetitive tests. Scripts can programmatically compare images and highlight any differences, allowing testers to focus on more intricate tests where the human eye is needed. Automation improves efficiency and helps catch bugs that manual testing may miss due to human error or oversight.

• Use Baseline Screenshots

Take baseline screenshots of what your application should look like during initial development. Then, as the codebase evolves, rerun the visual tests and compare new screenshots to the baselines. This makes it easy to spot unintended visual changes between code commits or releases. Storing baselines in a version control system also allows reverting to a known good state if needed.

• Get Early Feedback

Don’t wait until late stages to get feedback on visual design. Involve customers, designers, and other stakeholders early when wireframes or prototypes are available. They may catch issues that developers miss since they view the software differently. Early feedback prevents wasting time on designs or interactions that don’t meet user needs. It’s better to iterate on low-fidelity prototypes than finished high-fidelity ones. 

• Monitor in Production

Don’t assume your visual testing is complete once the software launches. Bugs can still occur or designs may need tweaking. Monitor your application in production environments using tools that capture screenshots on every request. Then compare them to your baseline images to detect any visual regressions in real customer experiences. This helps you fix issues quickly before they impact users.

Conclusion

A comprehensive Visual Automation Testing strategy involving planning, automation, baseline comparisons, early feedback, and production monitoring helps ensure your software provides the best possible experience for users. It prevents bugs and catches issues before they impact customers. With the right approach, visual testing need not be an afterthought but can improve the overall quality and design of your applications.