Previously, I wrote about our baseline usability project. Here is a status of the project.
We decided to just do the poor man’s version of usability testing. This meant using a conference room with a computer and a lot of note taking. After our first test, we realized that note taking was OK, but it sure would be nice to have a video camera to record the session and capture the user’s comments. We tried to borrow a digital video camera, but had no luck. That’s when my pal Pat suggested that we use some screen capture technology to record the session. She took immediate action and got Kevin, our company’s technical media expert involved. The next thing I knew, they had software and 2 quality microphones installed in a cute little lab that we are borrowing from another group.
The software is Windows Media Encoder (free with XP). Kevin set us up with a config file that he created specifically for our screen capture scenario. The software records every keyboard and mouse stroke made by the user. It also records the user’s voice.
Tomorrow is our first usability session where this software will be used. I will write back on Thursday with the results.