diff --git a/contribute/style-guides/e2e.md b/contribute/style-guides/e2e.md
index 4c69945a42a..4a53e065cfd 100644
--- a/contribute/style-guides/e2e.md
+++ b/contribute/style-guides/e2e.md
@@ -160,3 +160,41 @@ describe('List test', () => {
   });
 });
 ```
+
+## Aria-Labels vs data-testid
+Our selectors are set up to work with both aria-labels and data-testid attributes. Aria-labels help assistive technologies such as screenreaders identify interactive elements of a page for our users. 
+
+A good example of a time to use an aria-label might be if you have a button with an X to close:
+```
+<button aria-label="close">X<button>
+```
+It might be clear visually that the X closes the modal, but audibly it would not be clear for example.
+```
+<button aria-label="close">Close<button>
+```
+The above example for example might read aloud to a user "Close, Close" or something similar. 
+
+However adding aria-labels to elements that are already clearly labeled or not interactive can be confusing and redundant for users with assistive technologies.
+
+In such cases rather than adding unnecessary aria-labels to components so as to make them selectable for testing, it is preferable to use a data attribute that would not be read aloud with an assistive technology for example:
+
+```
+<button data-testid="modal-close-button">Close<button>
+```
+
+We have added support for this in our selectors, to use:
+
+Prefix your selector string with "data-testid":
+```typescript
+export const Components = {
+  Login: {
+    openButton: "data-testid-open", // this would look for a data-testid
+    closeButton: "close-button" // this would look for an aria-label
+  },
+};
+```
+
+and in your component, import the selectors and add the data test id:
+```
+<button data-testid={Selectors.Components.Login.openButton}>
+```
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/e2e/suite1/specs/import-dashboard.spec.ts b/e2e/suite1/specs/import-dashboard.spec.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1bc6095d60b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/e2e/suite1/specs/import-dashboard.spec.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+import { e2e } from '@grafana/e2e';
+
+e2e.scenario({
+  describeName: 'Import Dashboard Test',
+  itName: 'Ensure you can import a dashboard',
+  addScenarioDataSource: false,
+  addScenarioDashBoard: false,
+  skipScenario: false,
+  scenario: () => {
+    e2e.flows.importDashboard(TEST_DASHBOARD);
+  },
+});
+
+const TEST_DASHBOARD = {
+  annotations: {
+    list: [
+      {
+        builtIn: 1,
+        datasource: '-- Grafana --',
+        enable: true,
+        hide: true,
+        iconColor: 'rgba(0, 211, 255, 1)',
+        name: 'Annotations & Alerts',
+        type: 'dashboard',
+      },
+    ],
+  },
+  editable: true,
+  gnetId: null,
+  graphTooltip: 0,
+  id: 74,
+  links: [],
+  panels: [
+    {
+      datasource: null,
+      fieldConfig: {
+        defaults: {
+          color: {
+            mode: 'palette-classic',
+          },
+          custom: {
+            axisLabel: '',
+            axisPlacement: 'auto',
+            barAlignment: 0,
+            drawStyle: 'line',
+            fillOpacity: 0,
+            gradientMode: 'none',
+            hideFrom: {
+              legend: false,
+              tooltip: false,
+              viz: false,
+            },
+            lineInterpolation: 'linear',
+            lineWidth: 1,
+            pointSize: 5,
+            scaleDistribution: {
+              type: 'linear',
+            },
+            showPoints: 'auto',
+            spanNulls: false,
+            stacking: {
+              group: 'A',
+              mode: 'none',
+            },
+            thresholdsStyle: {
+              mode: 'off',
+            },
+          },
+          mappings: [],
+          thresholds: {
+            mode: 'absolute',
+            steps: [
+              {
+                color: 'green',
+                value: null,
+              },
+              {
+                color: 'red',
+                value: 80,
+              },
+            ],
+          },
+        },
+        overrides: [],
+      },
+      gridPos: {
+        h: 9,
+        w: 12,
+        x: 0,
+        y: 0,
+      },
+      id: 2,
+      options: {
+        legend: {
+          calcs: [],
+          displayMode: 'list',
+          placement: 'bottom',
+        },
+        tooltip: {
+          mode: 'single',
+        },
+      },
+      title: 'Panel Title',
+      type: 'timeseries',
+    },
+  ],
+  schemaVersion: 30,
+  style: 'dark',
+  tags: [],
+  templating: {
+    list: [],
+  },
+  time: {
+    from: '2021-06-30T04:00:00.000Z',
+    to: '2021-07-02T03:59:59.000Z',
+  },
+  timepicker: {},
+  timezone: '',
+  title: 'An imported dashboard for e2e tests',
+  uid: '6V0Nzyz7k',
+  version: 1,
+};
diff --git a/packages/grafana-e2e-selectors/src/selectors/components.ts b/packages/grafana-e2e-selectors/src/selectors/components.ts
index 8978f936740..7f422a68219 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-e2e-selectors/src/selectors/components.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-e2e-selectors/src/selectors/components.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+// NOTE: by default Component string selectors are set up to be aria-labels,
+// however there are many cases where your component may not need an aria-label
+// (a <button> with clear text, for example, does not need an aria-label as it's already labeled)
+// but you still might need to select it for testing,
+// in that case please add the attribute data-test-id={selector} in the component and
+// prefix your selector string with 'data-test-id' so that when create the selectors we know to search for it on the right attribute
 export const Components = {
   TimePicker: {
     openButton: 'TimePicker Open Button',
@@ -222,4 +228,12 @@ export const Components = {
   CodeEditor: {
     container: 'Code editor container',
   },
+  DashboardImportPage: {
+    textarea: 'data-testid-import-dashboard-textarea',
+    submit: 'data-testid-load-dashboard',
+  },
+  ImportDashboardForm: {
+    name: 'data-testid-import-dashboard-title',
+    submit: 'data-testid-import-dashboard-submit',
+  },
 };
diff --git a/packages/grafana-e2e/src/flows/importDashboard.ts b/packages/grafana-e2e/src/flows/importDashboard.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..81dc03c6d36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/grafana-e2e/src/flows/importDashboard.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+import { DeleteDashboardConfig } from '.';
+import { e2e } from '../index';
+import { fromBaseUrl, getDashboardUid } from '../support/url';
+
+type Panel = {
+  title: string;
+  [key: string]: unknown;
+};
+
+type Dashboard = { title: string; panels: Panel[]; [key: string]: unknown };
+
+/**
+ * Smoke test a datasource by quickly importing a test dashboard for it
+ * @param dashboardToImport a sample dashboard
+ */
+export const importDashboard = (dashboardToImport: Dashboard) => {
+  e2e().visit(fromBaseUrl('/dashboard/import'));
+
+  // Note: normally we'd use 'click' and then 'type' here, but the json object is so big that using 'val' is much faster
+  e2e.components.DashboardImportPage.textarea().click({ force: true }).invoke('val', JSON.stringify(dashboardToImport));
+  e2e.components.DashboardImportPage.submit().click({ force: true });
+  e2e.components.ImportDashboardForm.name().click({ force: true }).clear().type(dashboardToImport.title);
+  e2e.components.ImportDashboardForm.submit().click({ force: true });
+  e2e().wait(3000);
+
+  // save the newly imported dashboard to context so it'll get properly deleted later
+  e2e()
+    .url()
+    .should('contain', '/d/')
+    .then((url: string) => {
+      const uid = getDashboardUid(url);
+
+      e2e.getScenarioContext().then(({ addedDashboards }: { addedDashboards: DeleteDashboardConfig[] }) => {
+        e2e.setScenarioContext({
+          addedDashboards: [...addedDashboards, { title: dashboardToImport.title, uid }],
+        });
+      });
+    });
+
+  // inspect first panel and verify data has been processed for it
+  e2e.components.Panels.Panel.title(dashboardToImport.panels[0].title).click({ force: true });
+  e2e.components.Panels.Panel.headerItems('Inspect').click({ force: true });
+  e2e.components.Tab.title('JSON').click({ force: true });
+  e2e().wait(3000);
+  e2e.components.PanelInspector.Json.content().contains('Panel JSON').click({ force: true });
+  e2e().wait(3000);
+  e2e.components.Select.option().contains('Data').click({ force: true });
+  e2e().wait(3000);
+
+  // ensures that panel has loaded without knowingly hitting an error
+  // note: this does not prove that data came back as we expected it,
+  // it could get `state: Done` for no data for example
+  // but it ensures we didn't hit a 401 or 500 or something like that
+  e2e.components.CodeEditor.container().contains('"state": "Done"');
+};
diff --git a/packages/grafana-e2e/src/flows/index.ts b/packages/grafana-e2e/src/flows/index.ts
index 0ba42e7824d..99885d3f2fd 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-e2e/src/flows/index.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-e2e/src/flows/index.ts
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ export * from './openPanelMenuItem';
 export * from './revertAllChanges';
 export * from './saveDashboard';
 export * from './selectOption';
+export * from './importDashboard';
 
 export {
   VISUALIZATION_ALERT_LIST,
diff --git a/packages/grafana-e2e/src/support/selector.ts b/packages/grafana-e2e/src/support/selector.ts
index 54aa938e607..8e49d54afa1 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-e2e/src/support/selector.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-e2e/src/support/selector.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 export interface SelectorApi {
   fromAriaLabel: (selector: string) => string;
+  fromDataTestId: (selector: string) => string;
   fromSelector: (selector: string) => string;
 }
 
 export const Selector: SelectorApi = {
   fromAriaLabel: (selector: string) => `[aria-label="${selector}"]`,
+  fromDataTestId: (selector: string) => `[data-testid="${selector}"]`,
   fromSelector: (selector: string) => selector,
 };
diff --git a/packages/grafana-e2e/src/support/types.ts b/packages/grafana-e2e/src/support/types.ts
index 0476d317cbf..5ec63229821 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-e2e/src/support/types.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-e2e/src/support/types.ts
@@ -61,7 +61,11 @@ const processSelectors = <S extends Selectors>(e2eObjects: E2EFunctions<S>, sele
       // @ts-ignore
       e2eObjects[key] = (options?: CypressOptions) => {
         logOutput(value);
-        return e2e().get(Selector.fromAriaLabel(value), options);
+        const selector = value.startsWith('data-testid')
+          ? Selector.fromDataTestId(value)
+          : Selector.fromAriaLabel(value);
+
+        return e2e().get(selector, options);
       };
 
       continue;
@@ -81,8 +85,10 @@ const processSelectors = <S extends Selectors>(e2eObjects: E2EFunctions<S>, sele
         // the input can be (text) or (options)
         if (arguments.length === 1) {
           if (typeof textOrOptions === 'string') {
-            const ariaText = value(textOrOptions);
-            const selector = Selector.fromAriaLabel(ariaText);
+            const selectorText = value(textOrOptions);
+            const selector = selectorText.startsWith('data-testid')
+              ? Selector.fromDataTestId(selectorText)
+              : Selector.fromAriaLabel(selectorText);
 
             logOutput(selector);
             return e2e().get(selector);
@@ -94,9 +100,12 @@ const processSelectors = <S extends Selectors>(e2eObjects: E2EFunctions<S>, sele
         }
 
         // the input can only be (text, options)
-        if (arguments.length === 2) {
-          const ariaText = value(textOrOptions as string);
-          const selector = Selector.fromAriaLabel(ariaText);
+        if (arguments.length === 2 && typeof textOrOptions === 'string') {
+          const text = textOrOptions;
+          const selectorText = value(text);
+          const selector = text.startsWith('data-testid')
+            ? Selector.fromDataTestId(selectorText)
+            : Selector.fromAriaLabel(selectorText);
 
           logOutput(selector);
           return e2e().get(selector, options);
diff --git a/public/app/features/manage-dashboards/DashboardImportPage.tsx b/public/app/features/manage-dashboards/DashboardImportPage.tsx
index 3f6a6a332f6..b251556628d 100644
--- a/public/app/features/manage-dashboards/DashboardImportPage.tsx
+++ b/public/app/features/manage-dashboards/DashboardImportPage.tsx
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import React, { FormEvent, PureComponent } from 'react';
 import { MapDispatchToProps, MapStateToProps } from 'react-redux';
 import { css } from '@emotion/css';
 import { AppEvents, GrafanaTheme2, NavModel } from '@grafana/data';
+import { selectors } from '@grafana/e2e-selectors';
 import {
   Button,
   stylesFactory,
@@ -121,10 +122,13 @@ class UnthemedDashboardImport extends PureComponent<Props> {
                       required: 'Need a dashboard JSON model',
                       validate: validateDashboardJson,
                     })}
+                    data-testid={selectors.components.DashboardImportPage.textarea}
                     rows={10}
                   />
                 </Field>
-                <Button type="submit">Load</Button>
+                <Button type="submit" data-testid={selectors.components.DashboardImportPage.submit}>
+                  Load
+                </Button>
               </>
             )}
           </Form>
diff --git a/public/app/features/manage-dashboards/components/ImportDashboardForm.tsx b/public/app/features/manage-dashboards/components/ImportDashboardForm.tsx
index 865a75a07f5..7c679382e62 100644
--- a/public/app/features/manage-dashboards/components/ImportDashboardForm.tsx
+++ b/public/app/features/manage-dashboards/components/ImportDashboardForm.tsx
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import { DataSourcePicker } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import { FolderPicker } from 'app/core/components/Select/FolderPicker';
 import { DashboardInput, DashboardInputs, DataSourceInput, ImportDashboardDTO } from '../state/reducers';
 import { validateTitle, validateUid } from '../utils/validation';
+import { selectors } from '@grafana/e2e-selectors';
 
 interface Props extends Pick<FormAPI<ImportDashboardDTO>, 'register' | 'errors' | 'control' | 'getValues' | 'watch'> {
   uidReset: boolean;
@@ -61,6 +62,7 @@ export const ImportDashboardForm: FC<Props> = ({
             validate: async (v: string) => await validateTitle(v, getValues().folder.id),
           })}
           type="text"
+          data-testid={selectors.components.ImportDashboardForm.name}
         />
       </Field>
       <Field label="Folder">
@@ -137,6 +139,7 @@ export const ImportDashboardForm: FC<Props> = ({
       <HorizontalGroup>
         <Button
           type="submit"
+          data-testid={selectors.components.ImportDashboardForm.submit}
           variant={getButtonVariant(errors)}
           onClick={() => {
             setSubmitted(true);