SDET Guide
Multimedia Application Testing Illustration

Tue Jan 07 - Written by: Samridha

Multimedia Testing Data Visualization Performance Testing QA

Testing Multimedia Applications

A comprehensive guide to testing multimedia applications, covering functional, performance, visual, and usability testing, along with essential tools and key terminologies.

Testing Multimedia Applications

Multimedia applications collect, process, and visualize traffic data, including traffic camera video data. Different kinds of visualizations are used, such as:

  • Charts and graphs
  • Interactive maps
  • Heatmaps
  • Candlestick charts (for time series data)
  • Sunburst charts
  • Box plots
  • Bubble charts
  • Treemaps

Testing Focus

Interactivity Testing

  • Zooming, filtering, panning, tooltip interactions, drag-and-drop filtering.

Functional Testing

  • Data accuracy: Ensure the displayed data matches the source.
  • Interaction Testing: Validate hover effects, tooltips, zoom, pan, clicking, and event triggers.
  • Legend Validation: Verify that visualizations match their legends (legends explain what each color, symbol, and pattern represent).
  • Responsiveness: Ensure the UI adapts correctly to different screen sizes and resolutions.

Performance Testing

  • Test with large datasets to check load times and bottlenecks.
  • Measure memory usage and system resource consumption.

Visual Testing

  • Verify UI appearance, including:
    • Font, color, font size, alignment, orientation.
    • Changes in UI elements with theme variations.

Usability Testing

  • User Testing: Conduct sessions to gather feedback.
  • Understandability: Ensure users can interpret graphs, axes, tooltips, and legends.
  • Interactivity: Check how users engage with interactive elements.

Things to Remember:

  • Keep the design simple and intuitive.
  • Position items strategically for better user experience.

Tools for Multimedia Testing

  • Applitools (AI-powered visual testing).
  • Chrome DevTools (for debugging and analyzing UI performance).

Key Terminologies

Elements in Data Visualization

  • Axes, grids, labels, markers, annotations, legends.
  • Data representation: Data points, lines, curves, bins, heatmaps.
  • Styling attributes: Opacity, color, fill, gradients, patterns.
  • Interactivity:
    • Hover effects: Animations appearing on mouse-over.
    • Zoom & Pan: Adjust the focus on charts.
    • Drill-down: Click an element for detailed information.
    • Brush selection & filters: Interactive filtering tools.
  • Text Elements:
    • Titles, subtitles, footnotes, scale, background lines.

Elements in Multimedia

Photo Testing

  • Resolution: Number of pixels (sharpness and clarity).
  • Aspect Ratio: Width-to-height ratio (preserves correct dimensions when resizing).
  • Metadata: Embedded data about the photo (e.g., EXIF information).
  • File Format Compatibility: Ensure images work across different platforms.
  • Image Loading Time: Optimize for faster rendering.
  • Cropping & Resizing: Validate correct transformations.
  • Watermark Testing: Verify overlays do not distort the image.

Video Testing

  • Frame Rate: Number of frames per second (smooth playback).
  • Bitrate: Number of bits processed per second (affects quality).
  • Resolution: Video dimensions (e.g., 4K clarity).
  • Aspect Ratio: Maintain correct dimensions (e.g., 16:9).
  • Audio-Video Sync: Ensure proper synchronization.
  • Codec Compatibility: Verify encoding and decoding support across devices.
  • Playback Controls: Test play, pause, forward, and rewind functionalities.
  • Video Stabilization: Ensure smooth playback for shaky videos.

Metrics for Quality Loss

  1. SSIM (Structural Similarity Index): Measures perceptual similarity between images.
    • 0 → No similarity, 1 → Perfect similarity.
  2. PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio): Lower values indicate higher distortion.
  3. MSE (Mean Squared Error): Measures the average squared difference between corresponding pixels in original and compressed images.