Conducting usabilty tests
Overview
The lab consists of an observation area for the monitoring and recording
of data, and a testing
area for recording participant behavior. It is equipped to
record the following elements during a usability testing session:
- Real-time desktop screen capture (video of what happens on the participant's computer screen)
- Audio of the participant's comments
- Video of the participant's face
- Advanced data collection including mouse clicks, keyboard input and screen text
Morae Software
The lab offers an "all-digital" method for recording usability tests
using a software product called Morae.
This application offers digital
video output in either WMV or AVI format in various sizes. For many
projects, users only need a simple WMV file so that they can review their lab
session for later reporting.
It also
provides more advanced recording features such as the recording of mouse clicks,
screen text, keyboard activity and web page changes. It is possible
to create multiple customized videos from the same recording and/or
to create a single digital video using highlights from multiple recording sessions.
Morae consists of three primary components:
Morae Recorder:
- Runs on the test (participant) computer.
- Records the participant's
onscreen and keyboard activity in sync with video and audio of the participant
(through a web camera and microphone in the lab).
- Saves the file on
the participant computer in a file format you can open in Morae Manager for
editing and analysis.
- Uses a file format that results in fairly large files.
Morae Observer:
- Runs on the "observation" computer, allowing an observer behind a partition
in the lab to view the test session as it is being recorded.
- Connects to the "participant" computer that is running Morae Recorder
- Allows the observer to start and end the recording remotely from the observation
machine.
- Allows observers to add markers, task notations, and text notes to the
recording during the test.
- Allows the observer to start and end the recording remotely from the observation
computer.
- Saves a local WMV file of the screen video, camera video, and audio which
can be viewed immediately or copied to portable storage media
when the recording is done.
NOTE: The WMV files created on the observation computer
meet most lab users' needs for later session review and reporting,
and they are much smaller files than the AVI format created by Morae Recorder.
Morae Manager:
- allows users to create projects
- analyze recordings and create graphs of the analysis
- create a highlight video for presenting results
Saving Recordings
After a recording a test session, you will be prompted to save your recording
to a folder on the lab machine(s). However, you will need to come
prepared to copy your recordings to some portable media. We
do not guarantee that your recordings will be available on the lab machines
after your session. Storage options include:
- burn the digital video to CD-ROM in the
lab
- save to a portable storage device such as a USB flash drive.
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