Re: [Usability] Cheap Open Source Morae Alternative

[Diego Moya <turingt gmail com>]

I'd like to have a feature for bookmarks on frames, so that those
bookmarks are shown for a few seconds during video replay as a sort of
"close captioning" or balloons.

The technique called "communicability evaluation" uses tags to
annotate particular moments in the user test where specific types of
interaction problems arise. These tags are stereotypical expressions
such as "Where am I?", "Oops", "Where is it?", "Looks fine to me"...
For an explanation see:
http://www.id-book.com/casestudy_14-1_2.htm

During the analysis phase, the tags can be used to infer the user's
mental model during an action and thus helps finding which kind of
redesign is more adequate.


Some comments on previous subjects:

2009/12/18 Allan Caeg wrote:
> The record tab is where everything is configured before the researcher and
> participant start the session.

I would call it 'prepare' instead of 'record' then, as the actual
recording isn't performed in that tab.


> What the observe tab does is to show what's
> happening in the remote desktop and maybe the webcam feed. The view tab will
> play the record(s) back.

I suggest:
Observe -> either 'Record'  or 'Realtime'
View -> 'Replay'
Present -> maybe 'Report'?  (because 'present' would conflict with my
suggested 'replay')

But do we really need separate 'observe' and 'view' tabs? Both could
be integrated in a single panel using a VCR metaphor: 'Stop' and
'Record' states show the current webcam input, while 'Pause' and
'Play' show recorded video.


> Maybe, we can add a wizard plus those hierarchical buttons. What
> do you think?

The advantage of tabs over a wizard is that you can process it in any
arbitrary order, starting in the middle or going back to previously
visited actions as the user . Wizards impose a penalty for going back,
in that actions "in the future" might be discarded if something
changes in a previous panel.