How is UI testing different from UX testing?
UI testing is inherently related to UX testing: after all, optimizing an app or website’s appearance, functionality, and usability contributes to optimizing the overall user experience.
In this way, testing the UI may help you identify defects or issues that would have impacted the UX.
Some consider UI testing a subset of UX testing due to an overlap of testing scope and collectively call it UI UX testing. No matter your opinion, you need both to create an exceptional user experience.
What are the different UI testing techniques?
Manual testing and automation testing are the two primary UI testing techniques. Here's an explanation of each—what they are, and their pros and cons.
Manual UI testing
This technique involves a person (usually software testers or QA engineers) manually testing a website or an app interface by checking various UI elements like buttons, forms, and menus. They evaluate the website's usability, accessibility, and navigation using different user scenarios.
Both manual and automation UI testing techniques have advantages and disadvantages. Choose the method based on the website's specific requirements, resources, and goals of the testing process.
📝 Note: some people think of regression testing, smoke testing, end-to-end testing, and more as UI testing techniques. However, these are broad categories within software testing and differ based on their purpose.
Regression testing: retesting after a code change to ensure new updates or fixes don’t impact existing functionality
Smoke testing: quick, high-level assessment to verify critical features and basic functionality
End-to-end testing: testing the complete user journey, ensuring seamless component integration
Browser-compatibility testing: verifying compatibility and consistency across browsers/platforms
Accessibility testing: evaluating against guidelines (e.g. WCAG) for usability by people with varying abilities
Usability testing: involving real users to assess ease of use, efficiency, and satisfaction
How to do UI testing in 8 steps
As we mentioned, the UI testing process will differ depending on the project’s scale and your team’s size. Below, we share the standard series of steps to conduct effective UI testing. Follow the process as is, or iterate based on your unique business needs and team structure.
1. Gather test requirements
First, product owners, product managers, or your client’s representative—commonly an IT business analyst (BA)—share test requirements with the testing team and review design or development specifications and mockups.
A QA engineer might collaborate with the product, design, and development teams to define expectations based on the development and software testing stage.
2. Set UI testing strategy and objectives
After gathering requirements, specify the goals and scope of UI testing, and develop a plan that aligns with the overall project goals and ensures a comprehensive product examination.
For example, decide how UI testing fits broader quality assurance goals. The strategy should also outline the testing team’s roles and responsibilities, the test environment, and the testing schedule.
Consider adding user behavior analytics tools (like the ones available on the Hotjar platform) to your UI testing workflow to gain insights into actual user interactions and experiences and inform your UI testing objectives.
3. Develop test scenarios and test cases
Outline possible user interactions and scenarios, and identify critical UI components and features to test. Create detailed test cases for each scenario, including expected outcomes, to ensure software testers check all aspects of the specific functionality.
Include negative scenarios, such as inputting an alphabet in the Age field and observing the results. Develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) to standardize processes and improve your team's software testing efficiency over time.
📝 Note: some projects may require you to start UI testing by checking the prototypes built on tools like Figma—before front-end developers start with the UI development—while other projects may test the user interface only after a working application is ready.
4. Choose the right UI testing tools and techniques
Selecting the right UI testing tools and techniques is essential for executing a test plan successfully. A poor testing approach and the wrong suite of tools might trick you into thinking you’re making progress—when you're actually wasting time and resources.
Decide on manual testing, automation testing, or both, depending on your project's requirements and complexity.
You’ll need a defect-tracking application like Jira to manage and track your test cases and defects for both types of testing, and an automation testing tool like Selenium to create and execute test scripts for automation testing efficiently.
When evaluating testing tools, consider factors such as:
Ease of use
Compatibility with your tech stack
Cost
Credibility of the software storing your company's confidential data
Keep reading for more tips on selecting the right UI testing tools in the next section. 👇
5. Execute and document UI tests
Perform manual and automation testing as planned during the execution phase.
Then, let someone in your team—perhaps a QA analyst or engineer—walk through the application for manual tests, mimicking user behavior and checking for inconsistencies or issues. Automated tests are typically executed using test scripts that interact with the application and verify expected outcomes.
To ensure a smooth, consistent user experience, test across various:
Devices, like phones, laptops, and tablets
Browsers, like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari
Screen sizes (by adjusting the window size on your computer, for example)
Mobile operating systems, like Android and iOS
Document your test scenario execution with detailed steps, screenshots, or screen recordings to provide context for collaborators.
6. Report your findings and track the defects
Compile your findings and report the bugs after executing the test cases. A defect tracking or project management tool helps you better organize and track these software bugs.
Include information such as the steps to reproduce the issue and the expected and actual result in your defect documentation. Also, add screenshots or screen recordings of the faulty functionality to help developers and other teams understand the issues at a glance.
7. Review and validate fixes
Once the development team resolves the issues, review and validate the fixes by retesting the affected areas. You can also do high-level testing of related features that have a history of malfunctioning due to code changes. This process ensures the fixes are successful and do not introduce new bugs.
For example, after fixing a broken 'First Name' text box, check whether the 'Full Name' text box that's interdependent on it works correctly.
8. Continuous UI testing and improvement
To maintain a high-quality user interface:
Treat UI testing as an ongoing activity
Regularly update test cases and scripts to reflect changes in the product, such as new features, updates, or bug fixes
Incorporate user feedback and analytics to identify areas for improvement
Testing your product’s UI the right way requires tools that broadly fit into the following categories.
1. Prototyping and design tools
UI prototyping and design software enable designers to create, test, and iterate user interface concepts. By simulating user interactions via these tools, designers can identify and address usability issues early in the software development stage.
Our pick: Figma
Figma enables designers to create wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes to share with the development and testing teams. A widely-used tool in the category, it also helps facilitate collaboration and ensures everyone is on the same page.
Alternatives: InVision Studio and Adobe XD (integrates with Hotjar via Anima)
2. User behavior analytics tools
Behavior analytics tools track user actions through visualizations like heatmaps and session recordings, revealing user behavior and customer journey patterns. With a thorough knowledge of how users behave on your website or app, you can create comprehensive test cases, ultimately enhancing user experience and interface design.
Our pick: Hotjar
UI insights from Hotjar’s Heatmaps, Recordings, Surveys, and Feedback tools
Hotjar (that’s us 👋) is a best-in-class option, helping teams analyze user behavior with heatmaps, session recordings, surveys, user feedback, and interviews. Use Hotjar for a deeper understanding of how users interact with your UI to create data-backed testing strategies and identify areas of improvement.
Alternatives: Contentsquare (this platform is a fantastic option for enterprise businesses—plus, you can integrate Hotjar with Contentsquare)
Selenium is an open-source automation tool that simulates user interactions and verifies whether the interface behaves as expected. It’s used for automating testing across various browsers and platforms and offers tools for creating advanced automation scripts.
Alternatives: Lambda Test, BrowserStack
4. Test case management tools
A test case management tool helps organize, track, and manage test cases and their execution in the software testing process. It simplifies collaboration among team members by ensuring test cases are documented, prioritized, and executed efficiently.
These tools’ reporting and tracking features also enhance visibility into the testing process and help identify areas for improvement.
Our pick: TestRail
TestRail is a test case management tool designed to help software testing and development teams manage, track, and organize their testing efforts. It streamlines the testing process with features like test case documentation, test planning, and reporting. The tool’s integration with bug tracking and project management tools, such as Jira, further boosts collaboration and workflow efficiency.
Alternatives: Zephyr Enterprise, PractiTest
Defect tracking tools
A defect or bug-tracking tool reports, tracks, and manages software bugs during software development and testing. These tools help maintain software quality by providing a centralized platform to track and prioritize defects.
Many popular project management tools offer defect-tracking features, which you can use for multiple stages of the SDLC.
Our pick: Jira
Jira by Atlassian is a project management and issue-tracking software widely used by software development and tech teams. It offers a comprehensive platform for managing tasks, tracking bugs, and organizing workflows. With its robust collaboration features and customizable interface, it helps users plan, track, release, report, and automate various stages of software development.
Alternatives: ClickUp, Monday.com
The ultimate UI testing checklist
Download our comprehensive UI testing checklist (pictured below) to start checking off your steps.
Perfecting your UI testing approach
UI testing is vital to building great software and ensuring customers have a fantastic experience. By combining manual and automated testing methods and using the right tools, you can spot and fix issues more effectively.
One tool that makes a real difference to your user interface testing is Hotjar.
Hotjar shows you how your users interact with your product in real time so you can understand what they love, hate, and feel indifferent about. Use this data to decide where to focus your UI testing efforts and build a product your customers love.
