diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 3fe0551e..705d9f6e 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@ gem 'nprogress-rails'
 gem 'font-awesome-rails', '~> 4.2.0.0'
 
 group :development do
-  gem 'thin'
   gem 'spring'
 end
 
@@ -37,10 +36,13 @@ group :production do
 end
 
 group :development, :test do
+  gem 'thin'
   gem 'rspec-rails', '~> 3.0.0'
-  gem 'shoulda-matchers'
   gem 'factory_girl_rails'
   gem 'faker'
+  gem 'capybara'
+  gem 'poltergeist'
   gem 'simplecov'
+  gem 'database_cleaner'
 end
 
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index b01b7f3f..05abc76e 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -35,6 +35,13 @@ GEM
       sass (~> 3.2)
     bootstrap_form (2.2.0)
     builder (3.2.2)
+    capybara (2.4.3)
+      mime-types (>= 1.16)
+      nokogiri (>= 1.3.3)
+      rack (>= 1.0.0)
+      rack-test (>= 0.5.4)
+      xpath (~> 2.0)
+    cliver (0.3.2)
     coffee-rails (4.1.0)
       coffee-script (>= 2.2.0)
       railties (>= 4.0.0, < 5.0)
@@ -43,6 +50,7 @@ GEM
       execjs
     coffee-script-source (1.8.0)
     daemons (1.1.9)
+    database_cleaner (1.3.0)
     devise (3.4.1)
       bcrypt (~> 3.0)
       orm_adapter (~> 0.1)
@@ -85,12 +93,20 @@ GEM
     mail (2.6.1)
       mime-types (>= 1.16, < 3)
     mime-types (2.4.3)
+    mini_portile (0.6.0)
     minitest (5.4.2)
     multi_json (1.10.1)
     mysql2 (0.3.16)
+    nokogiri (1.6.3.1)
+      mini_portile (= 0.6.0)
     nprogress-rails (0.1.6.3)
     orm_adapter (0.5.0)
     pg (0.17.1)
+    poltergeist (1.5.1)
+      capybara (~> 2.1)
+      cliver (~> 0.3.1)
+      multi_json (~> 1.0)
+      websocket-driver (>= 0.2.0)
     rack (1.5.2)
     rack-test (0.6.2)
       rack (>= 1.0)
@@ -140,8 +156,6 @@ GEM
     sdoc (0.4.1)
       json (~> 1.7, >= 1.7.7)
       rdoc (~> 4.0)
-    shoulda-matchers (2.7.0)
-      activesupport (>= 3.0.0)
     simplecov (0.9.1)
       docile (~> 1.1.0)
       multi_json (~> 1.0)
@@ -177,7 +191,10 @@ GEM
       raindrops (~> 0.7)
     warden (1.2.3)
       rack (>= 1.0)
+    websocket-driver (0.4.0)
     will_paginate (3.0.7)
+    xpath (2.0.0)
+      nokogiri (~> 1.3)
 
 PLATFORMS
   ruby
@@ -187,7 +204,9 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   bootstrap-material-design
   bootstrap-sass (~> 3.2.0.1)
   bootstrap_form
+  capybara
   coffee-rails (~> 4.1.0)
+  database_cleaner
   devise
   factory_girl_rails
   faker
@@ -201,11 +220,11 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   mysql2
   nprogress-rails
   pg
+  poltergeist
   rails (= 4.1.7)
   rspec-rails (~> 3.0.0)
   sass-rails (~> 4.0.3)
   sdoc (~> 0.4.1)
-  shoulda-matchers
   simplecov
   spring
   thin
diff --git a/config/environments/test.rb b/config/environments/test.rb
index 053f5b66..411eb23c 100644
--- a/config/environments/test.rb
+++ b/config/environments/test.rb
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ Rails.application.configure do
   config.action_controller.perform_caching = false
 
   # Raise exceptions instead of rendering exception templates.
-  config.action_dispatch.show_exceptions = false
+  config.action_dispatch.show_exceptions = true # was: false
 
   # Disable request forgery protection in test environment.
   config.action_controller.allow_forgery_protection = false
diff --git a/spec/features/user_feature_spec.rb b/spec/features/user_feature_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4cf00539
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/features/user_feature_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+require 'rails_helper'
+
+feature "User", :type => :feature do
+  before do
+    @user1 = create(:user)
+    @user2 = create(:user)
+  end
+
+  scenario "gets asked a question", js: true do
+    visit "/@#{@user1.screen_name}"
+
+    page.driver.render Rails.root.join("tmp/#{Time.now.to_i}_1.png"), full: true
+
+    fill_in "qb-question", with: Faker::Lorem.sentence
+    click_button "Ask"
+    wait_for_ajax
+
+    page.driver.render Rails.root.join("tmp/#{Time.now.to_i}_2.png"), full: true
+
+    expect(page).to have_text("Question asked successfully.")
+  end
+end
diff --git a/spec/models/user_spec.rb b/spec/models/user_spec.rb
index dcc9df96..2ce876dd 100644
--- a/spec/models/user_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/user_spec.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 require 'rails_helper'
 
 RSpec.describe User, :type => :model do
-  # TODO: specs for user model
 end
diff --git a/spec/rails_helper.rb b/spec/rails_helper.rb
index ecb15e3d..5bbadc73 100644
--- a/spec/rails_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/rails_helper.rb
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ RSpec.configure do |config|
   # If you're not using ActiveRecord, or you'd prefer not to run each of your
   # examples within a transaction, remove the following line or assign false
   # instead of true.
-  config.use_transactional_fixtures = true
+  config.use_transactional_fixtures = false
 
   # RSpec Rails can automatically mix in different behaviours to your tests
   # based on their file location, for example enabling you to call `get` and
diff --git a/spec/requests/user_request_spec.rb b/spec/requests/user_request_spec.rb
index 21152b25..d7613d47 100644
--- a/spec/requests/user_request_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/requests/user_request_spec.rb
@@ -1,14 +1,12 @@
 require 'rails_helper'
 
-RSpec.describe UserController, :type => :request do
+RSpec.describe "user page", :type => :request do
   before do
-    # we need at least 2 users to test meaningfully
-    @user1 = create(:user)
-    @user2 = create(:user)
+    @user = create(:user)
   end
 
   it 'shows the user page' do
-    get "/@#{@user1.screen_name}"
-    assert_select "h3.text-muted", :text => @user1.screen_name
+    get "/@#{@user.screen_name}"
+    assert_select "h3.text-muted", :text => @user.screen_name
   end
 end
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index b81d6eb5..a5f6554f 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 require 'simplecov'
 SimpleCov.start
 
+require 'capybara/poltergeist'
+Capybara.register_driver :poltergeist do |app|
+  Capybara::Poltergeist::Driver.new(app, js_errors: false)
+end
+Capybara.javascript_driver = :poltergeist
+
 # This file was generated by the `rails generate rspec:install` command. Conventionally, all
 # specs live under a `spec` directory, which RSpec adds to the `$LOAD_PATH`.
 # The generated `.rspec` file contains `--require spec_helper` which will cause this
diff --git a/spec/support/database_cleaner.rb b/spec/support/database_cleaner.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d88b24be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/support/database_cleaner.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+RSpec.configure do |config|
+  config.before(:suite) do
+    DatabaseCleaner.clean_with :truncation
+  end
+
+  config.before(:each) do
+    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
+  end
+
+  config.before(:each, js: true) do
+    DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
+  end
+
+  config.before(:each) do
+    DatabaseCleaner.start
+  end
+
+  config.after(:each) do
+    DatabaseCleaner.clean
+  end
+end
diff --git a/spec/support/wait_for_ajax.rb b/spec/support/wait_for_ajax.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9d772404
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/support/wait_for_ajax.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+module WaitForAjax
+  def wait_for_ajax
+    Timeout.timeout(Capybara.default_wait_time) do
+      loop until finished_all_ajax_requests?
+    end
+  end
+
+  def finished_all_ajax_requests?
+    page.evaluate_script('jQuery.active').zero?
+  end
+end
+
+RSpec.configure do |config|
+  config.include WaitForAjax, type: :feature
+end