Impact of Automated Testing on Virtual Reality services - rayparker56/softwaretesting GitHub Wiki

Almost 20 years back, when Neo ‘the one’ geared up to fight the machines for the freedom of humans from a computer simulation in ‘The Matrix’, the whole idea of virtual reality and simulation seemed like a far-fetched fantasy. Yet, today virtual reality is at the frontier of the tech industry, transforming the world around us by offering an unprecedented level of immersion to users and placing them in a literal world of fantasy. From the gaming industry to the cinema, virtual reality has been making waves in the corporate world; and according to Statista, the worldwide market of virtual reality is estimated to be around $14.5 billion by 2020.

Arguably, the VR applications are one of the most sought after technologies in the industry today, and there are multitudes of tools and platforms available for the application development. However, the real obstacle lies in the herculean task of finding the right automation testing company to test the VR apps.

Virtual Reality Automation Testing

With the evolution of modern technology, software apps are able to respond to human voice and body motions and even recognize their faces. While this might be convenient and a surreal experience for end-users, automation testing companies usually take the brunt of it. The quality assurance testing of VR apps is a completely different ball game than that of the standard apps and software. Even though it still requires the functionality testing which is performed for the typical software applications, the ‘physical essentiality of wearables’ in virtual reality brings forth a whole new and unique series of problems for testing. Maintaining an equilibrium between mitigating any user experience problems while making a concentrated effort of not detracting anything from being added to an alternate reality is one of the main challenges for the testers.

Traditionally, quality assurance of a typical software application is usually done at the end of the development phase, and it is fixated on the evaluation of performance, usability, reliability, compatibility, portability, security, and maintainability of the application through a series of test scripts. However, the virtual reality app comprises of a whole new element of ‘immersiveness’ in the systems which has dramatically changed the dynamics and cannot be tested programmatically. Since the fundamental purpose of virtual reality is to blur the lines between the actual reality and the virtual world and to fully immerse the user into a new world, meticulous automation testing is required to detect and fix even the tiniest of the issue so the immersive user experience is not disrupted.

Conclusion

When it comes to the quality assurance and testing of the virtual reality apps, the stakes are higher for the testing companies considering that the health of the users is also impacted. Owing to the full-body immersion of virtual reality, users are sometimes known to experience eye strain, headaches, motion sickness, and seizures in worst-case scenarios. Hence, it is critical for the testing companies to not only identify but to also limit the physical consequences of the app through rigorous testing.