RE: [TFUI] Re: Is test driven UI development conceptually different?

Jeff Patton wrote:

> I think you're hitting on why it's conceptually different for me.
> When doing test first development, I "feel" like I'm designing.
> What little automted testing I've done gui clients "feels" like
> coding to spec - because the design was done already in a
> worksession just as you describe.  It's the coding to spec part that
> feels tedious, not the design work.

But when you are designing non-GUI parts, aren't you coding to a spec,
too - a spec that is saying what the system should do?

> I'm starting to hear that I need to see TDD UI a little
> differently -  to not think of it as interaction design as I know it,
> but as code/object design.  I need to not necessarily think so much
> about what the user is doing and why, because we might have already
> resolved most of that stuff - but instead think of how the UI
> components are collaborating to get that work done.
> 
> Is that how people doing TDD UI see it?

Yes, and no... ;)

Yes, I solely use TDD to design how my GUI objects interact with each
other, *not* to design how the GUI will look to the user. The latter is
designed through other means.

And no, how the GUI will look to the user isn't necessarily already
resolved. Actually when working on GUI code I very regularly swap
between manual inspection to see how the GUI feels to the user, and
automated TDD, to implement the things I feel need improvement.

Your mileage may vary, of course...

Cheers, Ilja



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