At test IO, we classify bugs into four types when running exploratory tests on websites and apps. Previously, we asked testers to report issues as functional bugs or usability suggestions. We’re now rolling out two more categories — visual bugs and content bugs — to make it easier to specify which kinds of bugs you’d like to see in a given test cycle.

All bug reports, regardless of type, always contain description, screenshots, device information, and steps to reproduce the issue.

Functional Bugs

Functional bugs are issues that directly impact how software works. If a button doesn’t work, if the search doesn’t react to the user input, if an app crashes, or if a product detail page isn’t loading completely – it’s a functional bug. When a user clicks and the website or app doesn’t respond as it should, it’s often a functional issue.

Usability Suggestions

Usability suggestions are feedback from our testers about the usability of your app or website. These suggestions might take the form of improvements to existing features and functions  or features that would make the product easier and more intuitive to use. Unless you specifically request that they do so, usability suggestions will not consider design choices or colors.

Here are some examples of usability suggestions:

“It would be useful to have the option to sort by location as a user will often be interested in the closest store.”

“Having mandatory fields marked in some way would improve the user experience and reduce frustration.”

You can choose if you want usability suggestions are for a test cycle.

New Non-Functional Bug Types

We want all of the issues we report to be valuable and useful to you. To that end, we’re now enabling more precise reporting of non-functional bugs by adding the categories of visual bugs and content bugs.

You find the new bug types within the sections of your test, you can request them for coverage and custom tests. Testers will only report relevant bugs that match your test requirements.

Visual Bugs – “It works, but doesn’t look right”

Visual bugs are the types of bugs where there isn’t a functional issue — the user can accomplish the task. However, the interface looks wrong, typically because of responsive design, CSS, HTML, or layout framework problems. We recommend including visual bugs for every frontend-related test to get dedicated feedback on the user interface.

Content Bugs

Content bugs are issues related to missing data, images, or broken links. For example, if some of the search results are missing but the search feature itself works, this would be considered a content bug. Another example would be if the image on a product page doesn’t display.

Let us know what you think about the new and old bug types!