Does TDD apply well when developing an UI?

Question

What are your opinions and experiences regarding using TDD when developing an user interface?

I have been pondering about this question for some time now and just ca

Answer 1

I think this blog post by Ayende Rahien answers my question nicely using a pragmatic and sound approach. Here are a few quotes from the post:

Testing UI, for example, is a common place where it is just not worth the time and effort.

...

Code quality, flexibility and the ability to change are other things that are often attributed to tests. They certainly help, but they are by no mean the only (or even the best) way to approach that.

Tests should only be used when they add value to the project, without becoming the primary focus. I am finally quite certain that using test-driven development for the UI can quickly become the source of much work that is simply not worth it.

Note that it seems the post is mainly about testing AFTER things have been built, not BEFORE (as in TDD) - but I think the following golden rule still applies: The most important things deserve the greatest effort, and less important things deserve less effort. Having a unit-tested UI is often not THAT important, and as Ayende writes, the benefit of using TDD as development model is probably not so great - especially when you think of that developing an UI is normally a top-down process.