Testing the user interface’s look and feel

The watchword for the look and feel of any interface is consistency – a small set of colors, fonts, and styles should be used throughout. Or, to return to the theme of this chapter: less is more. Fewer designs and colors provide a better experience for users.

As a tester, you can check that consistency. Do new pages use the correct company colors? Does the text use a consistent font that’s a uniform size? Are the buttons and links the same size and design as others? If there is a genuinely new element, does it use the same style as others in a new way?

Typically, adding new features simply involves extending the styles already in use, but every so often, there is a project to rebrand a product. Due to the amount of work and the marginal gain this involves, I’ve only seen it done when absolutely necessary.

Real-world example – The corporate takeover

One successful company where I worked was bought...