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. 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. 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.

A design picture on the Visual Reference track.The preview shows it at that moment, and checks are built on it.

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. 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. 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. 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.

ExampleA new Export button, two sprints away

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 showsWhat to do
Everything passesThe feature matches its design.The test now guards it against regressions.
An element looks differentA 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 foundCheck 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

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