User interface verification library for ios applications

UDC 004.451

User interface verification library for ios applications
K. Golovan, Ph.D., associated professor, A. Saenko, student National aerospace university named after N. Ye. Zhukovsky “KhaI”

Nowadays mobile technologies are very popular all over the world. A lot of people use their smartphones and tablets even more often than classic PCs. And everyone would like to have such devices easy to use to work and play with pleasure. That’s why user interface is very important just for mobile applications. Every pixel plays its own significant role when it comes to mobile devices.

Designers create so-called mock-ups according to user interface guidelines being developed by different mobile companies, and developers need to implement them in a “pixel perfect” way. However the developers may face the following problem: they are not able to see the difference between the design and implementation instantly at the specific device. They need to make a screenshot of the application first and then to download it to computer in order to compare actual result with expected one by means of Adobe Photoshop or some other graphic editor. So, it’s rather difficult to verify the design in a common way. The solution is to use easily integrated user interface verification library that can help to detect the differences. This library enables user to measure a screen of real application using different options, to detect mistakes in implementation and it also makes possible to compare mock-ups with a real application screen to see the “whole picture”.
There are two types of measuring tools: grid and ruler, which are similar to Adobe Photoshop tools. Grid is the perfect alignment tool for graphic comparing, and it is very easy to use. Zooming of application screen changes the grid size proportionally. Ruler helps to position the elements precisely. You can measure elements by means of a ruler from any specific point of the screen.
Possibility to compare mock-up and real application screen gives an opportunity to load any mock-up image from device gallery and to compare it with the current application screen. Mock-up image is transparent and enables user to see two screens at the same time.
Sharing feature is also available in this tool. It means that the investigation results may be sent to any interested person via e-mail with the corresponding comments and screenshots.
Library is embedded to the application during the development stage and it can be useful for quality assurance engineers, project managers, and software developers.
This is open-source library and you may get it at GITHub by the following link: www.github.com. Since this is an open code tool you can even make some code changes in order to meet your own goals.