Interface Testing Research Articles

Data Synthesis Is Going Mobile—On Community-Driven Dataset Generation for Android Devices

Personal electronic devices such as smartphones and smartwatches have become indispensable daily companions, collecting a multitude of personal and sensitive data. As a result, they are of paramount importance in digital forensic examinations. However, there is a lack of publicly available and ready-to-use digital forensic datasets, especially in mobile forensics. This work presents a concept and an open-source proof-of-concept implementation, which simplifies and automates the creation of mobile forensic datasets within the scope of the Android operating system. In contrast to previous approaches, which populate the most common databases of an Android device, our concept is based on community-driven playbooks and makes use of interaction with the actual smartphone GUI. Hence, we are able to generate coherent and realistic traces as they occur in real-world human usage. Our proof-of-concept implementation is based on the standard Android emulation environment and borrows tools from the user interface testing community. Our evaluation shows that our approach actually generates realistic Android datasets. For instance, we can generate traces that cannot be simulated by gestures (e.g., changing the GPS position or triggering incoming phone calls). Recording the actual data synthesis process allows users to either create and share their own playbooks (i.e., the exact instructions for the data synthesis process rather than having to share the full image) or reproduce Android images with different scenarios using playbooks previously created and shared by the community.

Organizing Graphical User Interface tests from behavior‐driven development as videos to obtain stakeholders' feedback

AbstractDemonstrating software early and responding to feedback is crucial in agile development. However, it is difficult for stakeholders who are not on‐site customers but end users, marketing people, or designers, and so forth to give feedback in an agile development environment. Successful graphical user interface (GUI) test executions can be documented and then demonstrated for feedback. In our new concept, GUI tests from behavior‐driven development (BDD) are recorded, augmented, and demonstrated as videos. A GUI test is divided into several GUI unit tests, which are specified in Gherkin, a semi‐structured natural language. For each GUI unit test, a video is generated during test execution. Test steps specified in Gherkin are traced and highlighted in the video. Stakeholders review these generated videos and provide feedback, for example, on misunderstandings of requirements or on inconsistencies. To evaluate the impact of videos in identifying inconsistencies, we asked 22 participants to identify inconsistencies between (1) given requirements in regular sentences and (2) demonstrated behaviors from videos with Gherkin specifications or from Gherkin specifications alone. Our results show that participants tend to identify more inconsistencies from demonstrated behaviors, which are not in accordance with given requirements. They tend to recognize inconsistencies more easily through videos than through Gherkin specifications alone. The types of inconsistency are threefold: The mentioned feature can be incorrectly implemented, not implemented, or an unspecified new feature. We use a fictitious example showing how this feedback helps a product owner and her team manage requirements. We conclude that GUI test videos can help stakeholders give feedback more effectively. By obtaining early feedback, inconsistencies can be resolved, thus contributing to higher stakeholder satisfaction.

An Image-Based User Interface Testing Method for Flutter Programming Learning Assistant System

Flutter has become popular for providing a uniform development environment for user interfaces (UIs) on smart phones, web browsers, and desktop applications. We have developed the Flutter programming learning assistant system (FPLAS) to assist its novice students’ self-study. We implemented the Docker-based Flutter environment with Visual Studio Code and three introductory exercise projects. However, the correctness of students’ answers is manually checked, although automatic checking is necessary to reduce teachers’ workload and provide quick responses to students. This paper presents an image-based user interface (UI) testing method to automate UI testing by the answer code using the Flask framework. This method produces the UI image by running the answer code and compares it with the image made by the model code for the assignment using ORB and SIFT algorithms in the OpenCV library. One notable aspect is the necessity to capture multiple UI screenshots through page transitions by user input actions for the accurate detection of changes in UI elements. For evaluations, we assigned five Flutter exercise projects to fourth-year bachelor and first-year master engineering students at Okayama University, Japan, and applied the proposed method to their answers. The results confirm the effectiveness of the proposal.

Usability Testing of Novel IoT-Infused Digital Services on Farm Equipment Reveals Farmer’s Requirements towards Future Human–Machine Interface Design Guidelines

The application of digital technologies in the agricultural sector is increasing. One of the new key technologies is the Internet of Things (IoT), which can facilitate the everyday work of farmers. For the successful adoption of IoT-enabled digital products and to ensure improved workflows, the usability of human–machine interfaces is highly important. Various design approaches of human–machine interfaces (HMIs) can currently be found in the monitoring of agricultural machinery. In this work, the most well-known HMIs are considered. Based on a usability test (participants n = 9), the user interface (UI) of a novel mobile application (NEVONEX Cockpit App) was chosen as an example of a design approach of an IoT ecosystem that is oriented towards the UI design of mobile applications. This work aims to identify the weak points of this UI. Conclusions about the needs, and thus an improvement of the user experience, are based on the suggestions for improvement and the information about the general requirements of farmers for a UI for agricultural machinery. Here, it was found that most farmers are satisfied with the UI design of their familiar tractor monitors. According to the survey, the three most important points to be considered in the UI design are intuitive operation and menu navigation, easy access to the essential functions and buttons, and sufficiently large control panels. The conducted usability tests can be considered a basis for developing HMIs for agriculture machinery. Through repeated execution of comparable usability tests, there is the possibility of developing future HMI guidelines for agriculture to improve the user experience (UX). For the NEVONEX ecosystem, feedback from the user interface testing was incorporated in a major revision of the Cockpit App’s design, where a lot more display space was given to the agronomic digital services by smartly arranging infrastructure functions in tiles.

Probability maps for deep learning-based head and neck tumor segmentation: Graphical User Interface design and test

BackgroundThe different tumor appearance of head and neck cancer across imaging modalities, scanners, and acquisition parameters accounts for the highly subjective nature of the manual tumor segmentation task. The variability of the manual contours is one of the causes of the lack of generalizability and the suboptimal performance of deep learning (DL) based tumor auto-segmentation models. Therefore, a DL-based method was developed that outputs predicted tumor probabilities for each PET-CT voxel in the form of a probability map instead of one fixed contour. The aim of this study was to show that DL-generated probability maps for tumor segmentation are clinically relevant, intuitive, and a more suitable solution to assist radiation oncologists in gross tumor volume segmentation on PET-CT images of head and neck cancer patients. MethodA graphical user interface (GUI) was designed, and a prototype was developed to allow the user to interact with tumor probability maps. Furthermore, a user study was conducted where nine experts in tumor delineation interacted with the interface prototype and its functionality. The participants’ experience was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. ResultsThe interviews with radiation oncologists revealed their preference for using a rainbow colormap to visualize tumor probability maps during contouring, which they found intuitive. They also appreciated the slider feature, which facilitated interaction by allowing the selection of threshold values to create single contours for editing and use as a starting point. Feedback on the prototype highlighted its excellent usability and positive integration into clinical workflows. ConclusionsThis study shows that DL-generated tumor probability maps are explainable, transparent, intuitive and a better alternative to the single output of tumor segmentation models.

A Survey Paper Review on Advancements in AI Driven User Interface Testing

Abstract: This survey explores the quality of software engineering and highlights the important role of artificial intelligence (AI) in improving software testing. It emphasizes the importance of software testing to determine the effectiveness and capabilities of software programs. This paper highlights inconsistencies in measurement guidance and the need for automation. It will also provide a better look at the changing ecosystem of automation products driven by roles in the convergence of the artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) eras. An AI-powered machine is made based on machine learning principles and is known as a tool that performs test models, provides logic, solves problems and performs tasks correctly. The main purpose of this evaluation is to explain the practical use of artificial intelligence in software testing and to conduct an in-depth analysis of its impact on software performance and development, improving agility. In summary, this communication provides a vision for the future by demonstrating the effectiveness of intelligent automation tools in the software testing environment, making the transition to software development reliable and convenient. More generally, this survey paper discusses today's practices of using AI to improve software development and continually unlock problem-solving innovation in software testing and software engineering along with making UI testing more reliable.

Automatic Presence Design in Virtual Class Using Convolution Neuron Network (CNN)

Universitas Terbuka is a pioneer in distance learning, it is required to always innovate, especially in the mode of learning. One of learning is through virtual classes, the tutor as a teacher provides direction and assistance to students as participants. Tutor and student attendance can be written directly by the tutor or through the attendance link, this tends to have a lack of human error, either the tutor forgets to write down the participants who were present or the attendance link filled in by participants who were not present, because the link can be accessed by anyone. Based on this, we try to design an automatic presence that is carried out in a virtual class. The research result design of image database, design of user interface, and design of learning engine. The results of database testing show that every table in the database is normal and there is a logical relationship between tables. The user interface test results are proven to be able to accommodate the database and engine display deep learning method. The results of the learning engine show the creation of a deep learning method architecture in accordance with the needs of face recognition in the virtual class.

A Systematic Literature Review of Design Thinking Approach for User Interface Design

The user interface is an influential element in software applications. A well-designed user interface will potentially increase the usability of software applications. Therefore, user interface designers should deliberate when considering which approach and method to implement for designing user interfaces. Design thinking is currently a widely followed approach in user interface design practices. Hence, this study aimed to explore research trends and current practices of design thinking approach for user interface design. This study employed a systematic literature review following the Kitchenham method. This study found 39 articles deemed relevant to the design thinking approach. In general, our study found five common stages broadly mentioned in the articles, i.e., empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. The most widely practiced method during those five stages is interview, user persona, brainstorming, user interface, and usability testing. However, there is no consensus on what kind of stage(s) and which method(s) should be employed when following the design thinking approach for user interface design. Therefore, it will depend on the designer's decision in choosing which stage(s) and their related method(s) will be employed.

GUI testing of Android applications: Investigating the impact of the number of testers on different exploratory testing strategies

AbstractGraphical user interface (GUI) testing plays a pivotal role in ensuring the quality and functionality of mobile apps. In this context, exploratory testing (ET), a distinctive methodology in which individual testers pursue a creative, and experience‐based approach to test design, is often used as an alternative or in addition to traditional scripted testing. Managing the exploratory testing process is a challenging task that can easily result either in wasteful spending or in inadequate software quality, due to the relative unpredictability of exploratory testing activities, which depend on the skills and abilities of individual testers. A number of works have investigated the diversity of testers' performance when using ET strategies, often in a crowdtesting setting. These works, however, investigated ET effectiveness in detecting bugs, and not in scenarios in which the goal is to generate a re‐executable test suite, as well. Moreover, less work has been conducted on evaluating the impact of adopting different exploratory testing strategies. As a first step toward filling this gap in the literature, in this work, we conduct an empirical evaluation involving four open‐source Android apps and 20 masters students that we believe can be representative of practitioners partaking in exploratory testing activities. The students were asked to generate test suites for the apps using a capture and replay tool and different exploratory testing strategies. We then compare the effectiveness, in terms of aggregate code coverage that different‐sized groups of students using different exploratory testing strategies may achieve. Results provide deeper insights into code coverage dynamics to project managers interested in using exploratory approaches to test simple Android apps, on which they can make more informed decisions.

A Systematic Literature Review of Design Thinking Approach for User Interface Design

User interface is an influential element in software applications. A well-designed user interface will potentially increase the usability of software applications. Therefore, user interface designers should have a deliberate thought when considering which approach and method they would implement for designing user interface. Design thinking is currently one of the widely followed approach in user interface design practices. Hence, this study was aimed to explore research trend and current practices of design thinking approach for user interface design. This study was conducted by employing a systematic literature review following Kitchenham method. This study found 39 articles that were deemed relevant to the design thinking approach. In general, our study found five common stages broadly mentioned in the articles i.e.empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. The most widely practiced method during each of those five stages is interview, user persona, brainstorming, user interface, and usability testing. However, there is no consensus on what kind of stage(s) and which particular method(s) that should be employed when following design thinking approach for user interface design. Therefore, it will depend on the decision of the designer in choosing which stage(s) and their relatedmethod(s) that will be employed.

UI/UX design of the PDBI digital art gallery web application using design thinking method

Documentation of digital artwork is essential for designers, serving as a copyrightable asset that can be included in a student's portfolio. User interface design is chosen as the gateway for developing the PDBI Digital Art Gallery Application. It is anticipated that a well-designed user interface will be part of the feasibility analysis for further development into a comprehensive and beneficial application. The research method employed in this study is design thinking, involving the construction of a user interface and usability testing for the PDBI digital art gallery application using a qualitative approach with a case study research type. Data collection techniques include observation, competitor analysis, and questionnaire distribution to obtain user experience feedback on the application. The introduction of the PDBI Digital Art Gallery application is expected to enable PDBI students to easily archive, showcase, sell, and create digital works, empowering student digital products as intended.

Sistem Informasi Manajemen Pegawai Berbasis Desktop (Studi Kasus: LPP RRI Jayapura)

Human Resources Management Information System (HRMIS) is a critical element in organizations or institutions to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of employee data management. This research discusses the development of a desktop-based HRMIS at LPP RRI Jayapura to overcome challenges in employee data processing, such as the lack of user understanding of the existing system and issues in personnel administration. The research method used is the waterfall approach with steps including requirement analysis, system design, implementation, and testing. The research location focuses on the HR and General Affairs department of LPP RRI Jayapura. Data collection is done through observation and interviews with the Head of the Administrative Division. The results of the research include system design, database table structure, user interface, and black box testing. This system features the management of job positions, ranks, employees, spouses, children, promotion, mutation, and report generation. Black box testing indicates that the system functions well. The conclusion of this research is that the development of a desktop-based HRMIS can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of employee data management at LPP RRI Jayapura. This system is expected to provide solutions to existing challenges and enhance the performance of personnel management in the institution.

Enhancing test reuse with GUI events deduplication and adaptive semantic matching

Developers typically employ Graphical User Interface (GUI) testing to ensure the expected behavior of applications, but they face the challenge of designing appropriate test cases with functional features. Recently, researchers have proposed several test reuse methods based on semantic matching to alleviate the burden. However, the limited text semantic information and semantic matching rules between events severely limit the existing test reuse methods. In this paper, we propose TREADROID (Test Reuse EnhAncer for anDROID applications), a framework that combines GUI events deduplication with the adaptive semantic matching strategy to enhance the usability of the reused tests. Considering the connection between widget attribute texts, we categorize attributes and measure widget similarity based on the same corresponding attributes as well as across attributes in the same group. In addition, we propose a deduplication strategy for GUI events to reduce the redundancy caused by reusing a test with unique functionality. To further bridge the semantic gap, we design a two-stage adaptive matching strategy to search for the target test with functionality closer to that of the source test. Experimental evaluation against the baseline methods on 25 applications demonstrates that: (i) the adaptive semantic matching strategy overall improves the performance of widget mapping; (ii) GUI events deduplication dramatically increases the precision of events on average, even reaching 100% for multiple tests; (iii) TREADROID can significantly reduce the manual effort of creating tests for similar applications.

Poultry Farm Management Application

The poultry farming industry plays a vital role in meeting the global demand for poultry products. However, traditional farm management practices often face challenges related to data management, resource optimization, and operational efficiency. In response to these challenges, this paper presents the Poultry Farm Management System (PFMS), a web-based application designed to modernize and streamline poultry farm management. PFMS utilizes the Model-View-Controller-Service (MVCS) architecture and a three-tier architectural framework, integrating technologies such as Go (Golang), MongoDB, and React. This paper outlines the methodology, system architecture, software modules, development process, database design, user interface design, implementation details, testing, deployment, security measures, and user training. It also discusses the results, cost- benefit analysis, potential enhancements, and the significant benefits PFMS brings to the poultry farming industry. Key Words: MVCS architecture, three tier architecture, schema design, efficiency, performance

FEATURES OF USING THE PROJECT METHOD DURING STUDYING THE EDUCATIONAL COMPONENT "DEVELOPMENT OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS"

The article reveals the peculiarities of using the project-based method to develop a set of communication and professional skills in future specialists in Information Systems and Technologies. As the development of modern IT is a fast-paced and dynamic process, future professionals need to be prepared to work on real projects and collaborate effectively in teams. The application of the project-based method provides students with opportunities to learn how to communicate, distribute responsibilities, and work as a team, while gaining experience in working with information systems and technologies and developing practical skills.
 The study analyzes the works of domestic and foreign educators who have researched the theoretical foundations of the project-based method, as well as scientific papers that explore the specifics of pedagogical design and the development of students' self-organizational abilities. The authors of the article place a special emphasis on developing the self-organizational abilities and professional self-improvement of future IT professionals, using the project-based method in the study of the educational component "Mobile Application Development". Students are given the task of developing a functional mobile application from scratch, which includes requirements analysis, user interface design, functionality development, testing, optimization, and project presentation. Each student can take on a specific role in the project, communicate, and exchange ideas with other team members. The outcome of the project is a functional mobile application that serves as evidence of their skills and knowledge in mobile application development.
 The article highlights the importance of using the project-based method in teaching mobile application development, which contributes to the development of students' self-organizational abilities, creative thinking, and independence. These competencies are essential in the modern IT industry and help future professionals to successfully compete in the job market.

Finite State Testing of Graphical User Interface using Genetic Algorithm

Graphical user interfaces are the key components of any software. Nowadays, the popularity of the software depends upon how easily the user can interact with the system. However, as the system becomes complex, this interaction is also complicated with many states. The testing of graphical user interfaces is an important phase of modern software. The testing of GUI is possible only by interacting with the system, which may be a time-consuming process and is generally automated based on the test suite. The test suite generation proposed in this paper is based on the genetic algorithm in which various test cases are generated heuristically. For performance validation of the proposed approach, the same has been compared with a variant of PSO, and it found that GA is slightly better in comparison to the PSO.

The Development of Tracking Systems in Mobile Application for Trail Run

Currently, mobile applications are an important medium, particularly for their use in assisting various activities, including extreme ones. For instance, mobile applications can assist with activities requiring GPS tracker functions, emergency calls, and health monitoring during the execution of activities. However, every mobile application that is created must undergo a development process that adheres to stringent standards. User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) testing is also essential for the efficiency and usability of an application. Using a tracking system based on the Design thinking development model, this study focuses on the creation of mobile applications. Next, the application's mobile usability test is tested and set.

A systematic mapping study for graphical user interface testing on mobile apps

AbstractMobile apps with tested Graphical User Interface (GUI) tend to have higher downloads in the apps store. In recent years, few efforts were made to analyse the research community and research status of the literature for GUI testing on mobile apps, which brings an obstacle to characterise and understand this field. In this study, the authors propose a systematic mapping study to gain insights into the field. First, the authors conduct an extensive search of relevant literature over seven popular digital libraries. From 4427 candidate studies, 114 primary studies published between January 2011 and September 2022 were selected. Next, the authors analyse these primary studies from the perspectives of bibliometric and qualitative analysis. For the bibliometric analysis, first, the authors analyse the popular research topics and their relationships. Second, the authors study the authors' community. For the qualitative analysis, the authors analyse the objectives, approaches and evaluation metrics employed in these primary studies. Their investigation reports several major findings: (1) there are relatively more studies on two topics, that is, test case generation and the automated test; (2) the most productive authors tend to collaborate and often have relatively broad research interests; (3) the functionality is the main objective of GUI testing; the model‐based approach is the most widely used.

An Enhanced Testing Approach for Mobile Applications

Nowadays, there is an enormous number of mobile applications that are continuously being launched to the market. As a result of this rapid process, there is a need to increase the speed of testing process using enhanced approaches. This research aims to increase the effectiveness of the graphical user interface testing process of mobile applications. This is achieved by proposing an enhanced combinatorial-based metaheuristic approach. The proposed approach aims to maximize statement and branch coverage by applying Cuckoo search, for event selection. The approach was compared to monkey, frequency, random and greedy approaches. Experiments were conducted on different mobile applications. During the same testing time duration, the proposed approach achieved higher coverage than the other approaches. The proposed approach proved its effectiveness in mobile application testing compared to the other approaches. 

Editorial

Dear Readers,  It gives me great pleasure to announce the second regular issue of 2023. I would like to thank all the authors for their sound research and the editorial board for the extremely valuable reviews and suggestions for improvement. These contributions together with the generous support of the consortium members enable us to run our journal and maintain its quality.  Still, I would like to expand our editorial board: If you are a tenured associate professor or above with a good publication record, please apply to join our editorial board. We are also interested in high-quality proposals for special issues on new topics and emerging trends.  In this regular issue, I am very pleased to introduce 4 accepted papers involving 16 authors from 6 different countries.  In a collaboration between researchers from South Africa and the USA, Trienko Grobler, Manfred Habeck, Lynette van Zijl and Jaco Geldenhuys address improved algorithms for combinatorial generation of bordered box repetition-free words based on tree-based search space and graph-based search space. In another joint research between Algeria and France, Mehdi Rouissat, Mohammed Belkheir, Hicham Sid Ahmed Belkhira, Sofiane Boukli Hacen, Pascal Lorenz and Merahi Bouziani describe a new technique to mitigate the version number attack for IoT networks, reducing control overhead by 83% and energy consumption by 74%. Amira Samir, Huda Amin Maghawry and Nagwa Badr from Egypt aim in their research to increase the effectiveness of the graphical user interface testing process of mobile applications by proposing an enhanced combinatorial-based metaheuristic approach that has been compared with monkey, frequency, random and greedy approaches. Qusai Y. Shambour, Mosleh M. Abualhaj and Ahmad Adel Abu-Shareha from Jordan propose an effective multi-criteria recommender algorithm for personalized restaurant recommendations by exploiting users’ and items’ implicit similarities to eliminate the sparseness of rating information.   Enjoy Reading!  Cordially,