Test a feature before it exists
Import pictures from your design tool and prepare the test while the feature is still being built.
Why test before it exists
Test-driven development from your design, in Figma or any other tool: the test exists before the feature does.The pictures your designers already made show what the screen must look like, and a check only needs a picture of what to expect.
The test is then ready the day the feature is built.Its first run tells the team, element by element, whether what was built matches what was designed.
The idea in four steps
Export
Buttons, icons and screens from your design tool, as pictures
Import
Into the test's Content Files
Compose
Lay them out on the Visual Reference track
Check
Add a check for each element that matters
Import your design pictures
Export the elements from any design tool, such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD or Photoshop, as PNG pictures: a whole screen, or single elements like a button, an icon or a logo.Export them at the size they will have on screen.
- 1
Click Import Media
In GUI Test Studio's toolbar, or File, Import Media.Choose your pictures: they appear under Images in Content Files.
- 2
Give them clear names
Right-click a picture and choose Rename..., or press F2: "Checkout button", "Cart icon".The names travel with the test.
Build the screen on the Visual Reference
The Visual Reference track is what you see in the preview at each moment.It usually holds a recording, but it holds pictures just as well.Drag a picture from Content Files onto it: it becomes a clip you can move and stretch, like a slide in a slideshow.
Place several pictures one after another to tell the story of the future feature as a collage: the list screen, then the dialog that opens, then the confirmation.
Add the checks
- 1
Drag a check to the moment of its picture
From the Assertions palette onto the Assertion track, under the picture it belongs to.
- 2
Show it what to look for
Open the check's editor.The frame it shows is your design picture: draw a rectangle around the element for a visual check, or mark the words for a text check.In the Visual Target Editor you can also drag a picture of a single element straight from Content Files onto the canvas.
- 3
Add the actions between them
Drag clicks and typing from the Events palette, or record them later, once the screen exists, with Record New Scenario.
The designer shares the picture of the new Export button and of the "Export complete" message.You import both, put them on the Visual Reference, and add a Visual Assert on the button and a Text Assert on the message.The test waits in the repository.The day a developer, or an AI coding agent, finishes the feature, the pipeline runs it and reports whether the button looks as designed.
When the feature is built
| What the first run shows | What to do |
|---|---|
| Everything passes | The feature matches its design.The test now guards it against regressions. |
| An element looks different | A real gap between design and build.Create a bug report, or accept the new look if the design changed on the way. |
| An element is not found | Check its size: a design picture exported at another scale than the screen is not found.Accept the best region the report offers, or capture the element again from the real screen. |
Test prepared from the design
Feature built
First run
Accept the real look
Once
Still stuck?Tell us what you were trying to do, and we answer within one working day.Ask our team