Visual testing is critical in ensuring that the application UI matches the design requirements given by clients in functional and non-functional specifications. Customers want a streamlined and visually appealing online experience in today’s highly competitive digital market. Visual testing, commonly referred to as automated UI testing or visual regression testing, checks the quality of the visual elements with which users interact. By introducing visual testing into the application verification process, businesses may verify that their products satisfy user expectations while avoiding the negative implications of a poorly designed user interface.
By 2026, visual AI-powered scanning techniques are predicted to discover 80-90% of detected accessibility concerns, up from 40-60% today.
This blog discusses the significance of visual testing and how it has become a vital component of corporate app development in recent years.
Why Must Enterprises Prioritize Visual Testing?
Visual testing is an essential component of application development since an application’s user interface has a substantial influence on its commercial success. Many prominent corporations realize the value of automated visual testing and have specialized teams for the task.
Here are a few reasons why visual testing is important:
- Poorly designed UI can cause consumer discomfort and undermine a company’s image.
- Difficulty utilizing an application across browsers might result in lost clients and money.
- Programs must be responsive to work smoothly across several operating systems and devices with diverse screen sizes.
- Customers form their first impressions of applications based on the user interface and convenience of use. An undesirable UI experience might deter users from utilizing the program, even if its functionality works well, resulting in a wastage of investment and effort.
What is Visual Testing for Mobile Apps?
Developers in the current app development landscape are challenged to create mobile apps that seamlessly adapt to a wide range of web browsers, devices, and operating systems. Thanks to established HTML and CSS standards, front-end developers frequently seek a write-once, run-anywhere (WORA) strategy when developing mobile apps.
Visual testing for mobile applications is critical in this complex process. It evaluates the visual elements of a mobile application and compares them to the expected design results.
Simply put, it is a way to identify visual flaws that affect the overall aesthetics of a mobile app UI while differentiating them from functional concerns. Visual tests are often performed on individual UI components during the development phase and on the entire functional mobile application during comprehensive end-to-end mobile app testing.
How Does Visual Testing for Mobile Apps Work?
When developers create test cases for visual testing, they are essentially writing code replicating what a real user would do, such as pressing buttons or swiping mobile screens. At critical points in the user journey, they take screenshots to capture the app UI after performing a specific action.
The initial test run compares these screenshots to any changes made to the code. Now, if someone changes the code, a new screenshot is taken. The test then compares the new screenshot to the previous one to detect any visual differences (whether subtle or obvious). If there are any visible differences, the test will fail.
Once the entire code has been tested, a test report is generated. The developer then delves into the new screenshots, compares them to the baseline, and attempts to determine what is generating the difference. If there is an issue, they will correct it and repeat the tests. If there is an intentional UI change (such as replacing one screen with another), they will rewrite the test using a new baseline screenshot. Since this is a time-consuming process, testers typically rely on automated visual testing solutions to manage and automate visual testing for mobile apps.
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Tools for visual tests
Android: The Android Testing Support library does not include any visual mobile app testing for Android. Therefore, developers must design their own. One of the few accessible frameworks was screenshot-tests-for-android, developed by Facebook. This tool allows you to test full screens and smaller user interface components, such as individual controls. Runtastic improved their project by adding more significant support for CI and Android 6.0 and making some minor changes. The library also includes a plugin that provides easy access to created test reports.
iOS: Apple, like Android, does not provide native tools for doing snapshot testing. Engineers must, therefore, navigate on their own. Facebook produced a library known as FBSnapshotTestCase. Uber now supports iOSSnapshotTestCase. Currently, it is the most dependable method for visual testing on Apple devices.
React Native: Jest, a package that allows testers to spot unexpected interface changes inside your application, is the most popular tool for snapshot testing of React Native apps. Loki is another valuable visual regression testing tool to consider. It’s most commonly used in web development, but developers have also utilized it in React Native. Unfortunately, there are no options for configuring this tool. To execute tests efficiently, developers must use the same simulator and screen size.
What Can Teams Achieve with Mobile Application Visual Testing?
- Enhanced User Experience: By discovering and fixing visual discrepancies early on in the development process, teams can ensure a consistent and visually appealing user experience, improving user happiness and retention.
- Faster Release Cycle: Automated app visual testing speeds the testing process, allowing teams to quickly discover and resolve issues, saving time to market and allowing for more frequent app upgrades.
- Efficient Collaboration: Visual mobile app testing findings give clear visual proof of concerns, allowing for improved communication and cooperation among developers, designers, and QA teams. This promotes an efficient and collaborative development process.
- Increased Test Coverage: Visual testing complements traditional functional testing by concentrating on the application’s visual elements. This enables teams to obtain complete test coverage and identify issues that may have gone unnoticed in functional testing alone.
- Enhanced Brand Reputation: A strong brand reputation requires consistent visual display across devices and screen sizes. Teams may maintain brand integrity and increase user confidence by maintaining visual consistency through extensive visual testing.
Who Should Perform Visual Testing For Mobile Apps?
- App Developers: Visual regression testing greatly assists developers by allowing them to detect and fix errors rapidly. It is critical to preserve the app’s user interface and provide a consistent user experience across devices and screen sizes.
- Quality Assurance (QA) Teams: Visual testing is critical for QA experts working on mobile apps. It minimizes manual testing time and enables faster change deployment, resulting in higher-quality builds.
Conclusion
Visual tests may automate problem discovery in your program, resulting in much faster development. They offer several advantages, and with proper application, they will ensure high quality of products and apps. Having said that, whether your visual regression testing strategy is based on Pcloudy, another method, or traditional manual methods, recognizing the importance of incorporating Visual Testing directly into a testing repertoire should be a non-negotiable for all programmers and product designers strategizing in the aesthetics-focused mobile app industry.
