The Power of User-Centric Testing
When it comes to testing code, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. As a developer, you’re in charge of deciding what’s worth testing and how to do it. But have you ever stopped to think about the ultimate goal of testing? It’s not just about ensuring your code works; it’s about creating a seamless user experience.
Writing User Stories
A great way to approach testing is by writing user stories. These are possible actions a user can take when interacting with your application. For example, if you’re building a Celsius-to-Fahrenheit converter, a user story might be: “As a user, I want to be able to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit.” But testing that a function can successfully handle the conversion is only half the story. You also need to ensure that the user can access the result and interact with your application as expected.
Testing for User Experience
As a frontend developer, your job is not only to ensure users get the correct answers but also to make sure they can use your application. That means assessing that the user has interacted with your application as expected. In our example, that means displaying the result on the screen, such as “25ºC equals 77ºF.” This is a relevant test because it ensures the user gets the right answer and can access it.
Avoiding Implementation Details
The main takeaway here is that user stories aren’t centered on development implementations, so your tests shouldn’t be either. Unless you’re creating a library, your tests should focus on application-wide scenarios, not bare-bones libraries. By doing so, you’ll write tests that resemble user stories, making them more readable and effective.
Case Study: Temperature Converter
Let’s take a closer look at the Temperature Converter application. We’ll pretend that a Project Manager has come up with the following requirements:
- As a user, I want to be able to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit
- As a user, I want to be able to convert from Fahrenheit to Celsius
- As a user, I want to click on a Reset button so I can easily convert many values with minimal effort
We’ll write tests that match each user story, ensuring that each requirement is fulfilled. By leveraging the react-testing-library API, we can write semantic tests that make sense. For example, we can use the userEvent object to encapsulate implementation details and make our code more readable.
The Benefits of Semantic Testing
By writing tests that resemble user stories, we can create a more intuitive and user-centric testing approach. This approach helps us avoid chasing meaningless metrics and focus on what really matters – whether our designed scenario works as expected. With react-testing-library, we can write tests that are easy to understand and maintain, making our code cleaner and more efficient.
Get Started with LogRocket
Ready to take your testing to the next level? Try LogRocket’s modern React error tracking and get set up in minutes. With its easy-to-use API and semantic testing approach, you’ll be writing better tests in no time.