You should check out SMT2: http://smt.speedzinemedia.com/features.php

It's a tiny application that you put on your web server that records the
mouse clicks of user sessions and allows you to replay them any time. It
took me about 30 minutes to get up and running. Also, it's free.

If you want full video recordings, you could just use Fraps:
http://www.fraps.com/. It's designed for recording PC games, but it works
for browsers or anything else you want. Just stick it on a computer, and
have people do your usability tests. Very easy to use and only $37 for a
full license.

You can spend tons of money on this sort of thing, but honestly you can
get just as much use out of the free stuff.

Josh Welker


-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Matt Connolly
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2014 6:09 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Screencasting Usability Studies

We use this approach as well here at Cornell. Our usability group has
tried a variety of techniques, including using Morae and writing detailed
reports for clients, but having clients observe live from a remote
location seems to engage them more. It's become a popular means of
testing. One note, though: this method gets called "discount" usability
testing, but we found that label to be very inaccurate! We call it "raw"
usability instead, which I think better describes the unprocessed flow of
information from tester to client.

By the way, we also use Macs for most of our testing, and I don't think
that it's led to inordinate amounts of confusion. I would recommend
running tests in Firefox or Chrome, though, and not Safari. And on a
laptop, definitely plug in a mouse so that testers don't have to rely on
the trackpad!

- Matt


--------
Matt Connolly
Application Developer, CUL-IT
Cornell University Library
218 Olin Library | Ithaca, NY  14853
(607) 256-4209

On Feb 28, 2014, at 6:06 AM, Nadaleen F Tempelman-Kluit <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Ronan-
> That's exactly what we do here at NYU Libraries and it works really
well.
> We have observers in another room taking notes in real time as the
> tests are in progress in another part of the library, using GoToMeeting.
> Let me know if you want more details.
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 2:14 AM, Ronan McHugh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Steve Krug recommends GoToMeeting in his book (Rocket Surgery Made
Easy).
>> They've got a 30 day free trial so we're going to try it out next
>> week on some of our colleagues to see if it's worth the price.
>> Basically what we want is the ability to capture the screen and sound
>> and to play this live for the developers in another room, so that we
>> can all observe together. I looked at Silverback, but I think getting
>> users to do a usability test on an unfamiliar device (i.e. a Mac) can
only lead to problems and confusion.
>> I'll let you know how we get on.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Ronan McHugh
>> Software Developer
>> Royal Library of Denmark
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Nadaleen Tempelman-Kluit
> Head, User Experience (UX) Department
> Bobst Library, New York University
> [log in to unmask]
> (212) 998-2469
> Sign up to help us test our interfaces & get an iTunes gift card!
> <https://library.nyu.edu/ux/>