In a mobile application, the first area for which test plan needs to be executed is the user interface. It is very important to have a good look and feel of the application that would attract consumers to use the application.
It is the duty of a QA to ensure that the application has an easy to use user interface.
The QA should have a proper knowledge about the flow of the devices in which the application is to be tested, as the application might have an impact on the mobile device’s native application like phone, email, camera, contacts, calender, etc.
Below are some of the important points that are to be considered in a user interface testing along with the some of the basic steps that a QA generally follows to test the various aspects.
a) Screen Resolution
In today’s scenario, the mobile applications have become more versatile. They are designed to fit various mobile devices, with different screen resolutions.
In this case, it is wiser to start with the device with the smallest screen and then continue to the largest one. In this way, in case of the smallest screen, there are chances that the application does not fit into the device, and the fields and screen are cut off. Same is the case with the devices with various screen sizes. Hence, we need to check the screen orientation both in landscape and portrait mode in different screen sizes using various devices available as per the requirement, and also all the pages in the application need to be tested in both landscape as well as potrait mode. Any layout changes in the future should also follow the above process to make sure that the application still looks good in the required screen sizes.
The second thing that is quite important while checking for the screen orientation is the use of the virtual keyboard while changing the screen modes.
Let's take a real time example. Sometimes, there is a chance that user makes frequent change in orientation and by mistake the virtual keypad opens, or user is in a hurry, and wants to search something. In this process if the screen orientation changes (which is very obvious in the smartphones that are very sensitive to the screen moves), and on opening the virtual keypad, the screen might crash or have a negative effect on the application which is very common, if developer has not provided exception handling. So these kind of scenarios should be handled.
b) Touchscreens and Trackballs
Smartphones basically have a number of touch functionalities to make the applciation look easier, like the pinch-to-zoom effect, sliding effect are some to include.
So QA should make it a point that the application is checked by zooming in some of the sections as per requirement of the application, like for a restaurant application or for a navigation application, we need this zooming effect extensively, to check whether when zoomed in, it shows the result in a more detailed way or not., similarly if the texts are too small, we can just zoom it and check that they are not distorted.
In the same way, we need to check that the sliding effect is working in a single stroke or not. After we slide, the next screen must fit into the screen resolution without getting distorted.
The buttons used throughout the application should be big enough to be clicked in a large fingertip, and also sometimes user uses stylus to perform the functionality so this should be kept in mind that the buttons are sensitive to any kind of touch.
When user needs to enter text in any search field, or user entry fields, the virtual keypad should open automatically, and also user should be able to scroll throughout the page by using the up and down storke.
Sometimes, user does not use the touchscreen, and prefers to use the trackballs, and also not all mobile devices have touchscreens, so navigation through fields should be activated using trackballs, left right navigation, page scrolling, so that using the application is easy even without touchscreen.
c) Hard keys
The application should also be tested to make sure that they are well integrated with the mobile hard keys like start, home, menu and back buttons.
In general, to make the user have a great experience, these hard keys should work the same way it works in mobile’s native application.
d) Shortcuts
Discuss with the developers if there are any shortcuts present in the application that are similar to the device used for testing and check whether it functions correctly or not.
The above mentioned points are few things that are to be considered in general while testing a mobile application for user interface. Various devices have different functionalities that are to be considered and testing should be done based on the application.
