ScreenShooting

Craft@ 2009, Christine Slobodian

Disclaimer

This presentation contains some real-life examples of (not that good) screenshots made by real testers on real projects – they are marked with *.

It wasn’t my intent to offend somebody or make fun of somebody’s work, but to use these for learning purposes only.

making screenshot

is a trivial task

Some people think

not many people know how to do

good screenshots

But in fact

don’t care about screenshots quality

Some testers

screenshots is one of tester’s

main deliverables!

They don’t realize

show your professionalism

Good screenshots:

communicate issues easier and

faster

Good screenshots:

show your carelessness

Bad screenshots:

confuse and complicate

communication

Bad screenshots:

Simple steps to make a REALLY

GOODscreenshot

So let’s see

1

make screen capture and crop needed area

Step

NOT include garbage

Screenshot should

People don’t need to know what wallpaper you have…

tested application

That’s all they need to see

tested application

do NOT crop too much

But!

Can you understand what is that about???

*

NO IDEA? me too :)

*

Make sure you provide enough

context

This can help

URL

This can help

Error Details

This can help

CurrentUser

2

highlight or mark problematic area

Step

Can you find the bug here???

Oh, here it is!

Menu is cropped under this resolution

Learn to use:

Arrows & Frames

They can explain almost everything

Show misalignment:

Show the flow:

Show the difference:

BUT they also can confuse

What did tester want to say here???

*

please remember…

Also as a professional tester

NEVER use freehand tool

PLEASE..*

*

PLEASE.. PLEASE..

*

PLEASE.. PLEASE.. PLEASE..

3

add textual description

if needed

Step

before opening screenshot

Developers RARELY read bug description

withoutreading description :)

So make it clear

This screen tells a story:

This screen gives instructions:

This screen compares things:

But don’t try to say EVERYTHING

at one screen…

Not to get smth like this:*

4

save your screenshot in proper format and

with proper name

Step

JPEG, GIF, PNG

Proper image formats:

Normal quality images of comparably small size

BMP

Improper format:

Too big size for attaching/sending

should be as

DESCRIPTIVE as possible

Proper image names:

Bad example:

Good example:

screenshot isREADY :)

That’s it

shoot & crop1Step

highlight & mark

add text

2Step

3Step

4Step good name.jpg

Four Simple Steps:

try out the following..

Finally: if you still haven’t decided

which tool to use

Free Tool:

JING - snap screens and record videosJust enough functionality for great screenshots

Commercial Tool:

SNAGIT - one of the most popular tools among software testersComprehensive set of functions for capturing and editing

HappyScreen Shooting!

p.s. If you have more interesting examples of (good or bad) screenshots, mail them to me:khmryglod@gmail.com