Authors
Feature Friday – Qyrus’ Visual Testing Tools: Streamline Your Testing Process
Is that a chill in the air? We think it’s finally here, the end of summer. For some, it’s a time to lament. The farewell of long shiny days and warm summer afternoons traded for dull cool days and long dreary nights. Others relish the “sweater weather” to come. Whatever side you’re on, we hope your summer has been fun! Qyrus is here to either extend your summer fun or kick off your autumn celebrations with another Feature Friday. Today we’re joined by Raoul and Jorell to discuss more about our brand new visual testing capabilities!
Tell us more about visual testing offered by Qyrus and its use cases.
Raoul:
From a high level, our offering allows the user to add visual testing to their functional web tests. It’s super simple to enable and is done before the test execution itself. Choose previous tests to compare against and let the test run. By visual testing we mean that Qyrus will compare screenshots of older executions with most recent executions and highlight any changes in the application also known as visual regression.
Jorell:
Additionally, Qyrus visual testing includes validating against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1), essentially this is known as accessibility testing. Currently Qyrus supports overlap testing, contrast testing, and dark mode contrast testing, with many more solutions to come shortly.
Interesting feature… it seems like it takes the functional testing and enables visual testing to happen in the background. Reusability has always been an important point in Qyrus’ testing.
What is this feature’s overall impact on the testing process?
Jorell:
The largest impact comes in the form of test reporting. A simple checkbox provides so much more visual analysis and can empower testers. In a way, it also impacts test building. It’s super simple to enable this visual testing, as I mentioned.
Raoul:
And really it helps increase test coverage in that manner, as well. We have seen testers struggle when it comes to visual regression testing, and most of it ends up being a manual process. This empowers a shift left approach.
Qyrus’ visual testing can obviously impact your testing strategies. However, let’s get more insight into how specific users might utilize this feature.
How might visual testing help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can this feature bring?
Jorell:
Well, testers can check a box when executing Qyrus web tests to expand coverage from just functional testing to include visual regression and accessibility testing. The importance of accessibility testing is tantamount. They would be the primary users of this functionality.
Raoul:
Developers can now receive quicker feedback from testers on what changed across releases and if any accessibility rules has been violated. They can do this themselves and easily, as well. Simply navigate through your different web pages and receive feedback. And lastly, business technologists are able to equip their teams with Qyrus web testing – a tool that allows them to do their traditional functional testing but will automatically does visual testing – expanding testing coverage into non-functional aspects such as visual regression and accessibility testing.
Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?
Raoul:
Many of our competitors offer these as individual features but we integrate this within our functional web testing service, which by the way is a SaaS testing and quality platform.
Jorell:
For visual regression, the tester would have to manually compare the different versions side-by-side or use an unrelated tool to achieve the same results. And for accessibility testing, the tester will have to validate each page against accessibility standards using yet another tool.
So, like with many other features on Qyrus, it’s not something “brand new” to the testing scene. However, it’s another capability that is offered in our “one-stop-shop.”
How do you see visual testing impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?
Raoul:
Well, Qyrus’ visual testing makes testing easier by expanding coverage from just functional web testing to include visual testing. This also ensures that your application is accessible and inclusive to anyone. This would make day-to-day operations smoother.
Jorell:
And testing processes would be made faster because Qyrus’ visual testing combines multiple tools into one – functional web testing, visual testing, and accessibility testing. It allows you to reuse and repurpose your previously built and run tests.
Is there anything else you guys would like to add before we close?
Jorell:
Yea, actually… one thing we wanted to mention is that we are utilizing AI/ML to achieve these visual tests and visual regression tests. It’s a feature that some might not realize utilizes AI/ML.
Raoul:
Also, look for future improvements in our visual testing system! We are adding more and more functionality every sprint. Ultimately, we hope to cover all points of the WCAG 2.1 checklist.
That will wrap it up for this week’s Feature Friday! Visual testing is another empowering tool that Qyrus can offer its users to help enable a shift left in their testing strategies. If it’s something that interests you, don’t hesitate to give Qyrus a try with a Free Trial for 14 days. We hope you’ve enjoyed this installment, now hurry up and crack out your sweaters before it gets too chilly and too late! Have a good weekend!
