A UI’s quality greatly influences an end-user’s initial and final impressions of the website or app. The success or failure of software hinges on UI design and functionality. This has led developers and testers to increasingly emphasize User Interface Testing (UI testing) as a critical component of the development process.
An excellent UI is indispensable for captivating, pleasing, and retaining customers. With competitive applications, the expectations for user experience are ever more demanding. UI testing has become imperative to meet these heightened standards to ensure every feature performs as intended. It also helps gauge any website or app’s visual aspects to ensure they’re appealing and capable of maintaining user interest.
Speed Up UI Testing in 4 Ways
UI testing verifies whether the user interface elements, such as buttons, menus, forms, and navigation, work as intended for a seamless user experience. As modern software applications become more complex and user expectations continue to rise, UI testing ensures the quality and success of software products.
Several ways are available to help your automated UI testing run faster and more efficiently. For example, implementing parallel test execution enables running multiple tests simultaneously to reduce the overall testing time.
Tests that run in a continuous integration (CI) pipeline can use headless browsers—they do not require a visible UI and are faster than Graphical User Interface (GUI) browsers. Employing innovative test data management, reusing test data, and setting up clean test environments further saves time and resources.
Also, modern testing frameworks and tools supporting automated testing, continuous integration, and test automation can streamline the testing workflow. Regularly monitoring and fine-tuning the testing process based on performance metrics and feedback will lead to continuous improvements and faster UI testing cycles. The four common ways to speed up UI testing are:
Parallel Testing
This technique accelerates UI testing by executing multiple test cases simultaneously across multiple devices or browsers. Traditional sequential testing can be time-consuming and delay software development and deployment. With parallel testing, test cases can be distributed across enabling multiple tests to run concurrently. However, this can be extremely CPU intensive and cause tests to collide. Parallel testing abides by the Law of Diminishing Returns.
Software testing teams can reduce the overall testing time and obtain quicker feedback on the application’s behavior across various configurations. This optimization leads to faster bug detection and resolution, allowing QA and development teams to catch issues earlier in the development lifecycle.
However, Parallel Testing has several limitations, such as being extremely CPU intensive, causing tests to collide, and you can only parallelize so much. Even with infinite hardware resources, Parallel Testing abides by the Law of Diminishing Returns.
Cross-Browser Testing
Today’s tech-savvy users access applications from various web browsers and devices. This is where the power of cross-browser testing comes in. Such a method of UI testing ensures applications function correctly across different browsers, versions, and operating systems. Automated cross-browser testing tools can also be employed to speed up UI testing.
These tools allow software testing teams to run test cases across multiple browsers in parallel, minimizing testing time, and improving test coverage. Ascertaining compatibility across browsers early in the development process can prevent last-minute fixes and retesting, ultimately expediting the release process.
Using an API Layer if Possible
An Application Programming Interface (API) layer can streamline UI testing by enabling uninterrupted access to application functionalities without directly interacting with the user interface. With APIs, testers can perform backend testing more efficiently, as APIs tend to be more stable and faster than UI components.
Separating UI and API testing enables testing teams to focus on their respective areas of expertise, leading to faster and more reliable test execution. Using APIs for testing also lessens the dependency on the UI, making the tests less susceptible to UI changes and increasing test robustness.
Leverage UI Automation
Automation has been a game-changer in speeding up UI testing. Specialized automation testing tools replicate user interactions with the application’s UI. Automating repetitive test cases means testers can execute a large number of tests quickly and consistently.
This minimizes manual errors and inconsistencies while providing the advantage of continuous testing throughout the development process. UI automation can be particularly advantageous for regression testing, where repetitive test cases must be rerun frequently to catch potential bugs introduced by new code changes.
Speed Up UI Testing with Appsurify
Though the above methods can enhance UI testing efficiency, Appsurify takes it to the next level with its plug-and-play AI Risk Based Testing tool. Appsurify seamlessly integrates AI into automation testing, allowing QA and developer teams to run a smart subset of tests based on recent developer changes.
Pains from the Above 4 Old Options
Parallel testing, cross-browser testing, using an API layer, and UI automation are beneficial for expediting UI testing, but they have certain limitations. Parallel testing, for instance, requires significant hardware resources, and managing different test environments can become complex.
Cross-browser testing demands careful handling of diverse browser behaviors and implementing an API layer may not always be feasible for all applications. Building and maintaining UI automation scripts can also be time-consuming.
Optimize UI Testing through Predictive Test Selection
Appsurify speeds up UI Testing through proprietary AI Test Selection technology. This powerful tool automatically selects and runs only the tests impacted by recent developer changes, effectively reducing test execution time without compromising test coverage. With Appsurify’s predictive test selection, QA and development teams can catch bugs ten times faster and earlier, making the testing process more efficient and productive.
Appsurify Speeds Up UI Testing
The need for rapid and reliable UI testing in today’s ever-evolving software development landscape cannot be overstated. Incorporating parallel testing, cross-browser testing, utilizing an API layer, and leveraging UI automation helps software testing teams improve their testing processes. However, to truly achieve unparalleled speed and efficiency in UI testing, consider Appsurify’s AI-powered risk-based testing tool.
The innovative technology ensures that only the necessary tests are executed, eliminating redundant testing efforts and accelerating bug detection. Optimizing UI testing empowers software development teams to fast-track their deployments with confidence. If you’re ready to boost your QA and CI pipeline workflows while decreasing UI testing time without compromising quality, contact us today for a demo.