User Interface Testing

The means that you use to interact with a software program is called its user interface or UI. All software has some sort of UI. Purists might argue that this isn't true, that software such as what's in your car to control the fuel/air ratio in the engine doesn't have a user interface. In truth, it doesn't have a conventional UI, but the extra pressure you need to apply to the gas pedal and the audible sputtering you hear from the tailpipe is indeed a user interface.

The computer UI we're all familiar with has changed over time. The original computers had toggle switches and light bulbs. Paper tape, punch cards, and teletypes were popular user interfaces in the '60s and '70s. Video monitors and simple line editors such as MS-DOS came next. Now we're using personal computers with sophisticated graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Soon we'll be speaking and listening to our PCs, carrying on verbal conversations as we do with people!

Although these UIs were very different, technically they all provided the same interaction with the computerthe means to give it input and receive output.