As the world evolves to a more mobile space, so must
our methods and ability to test mobile designs. As mobile devices
themselves evolve, it’s becoming more and more challenging to put
wireframe prototypes in front of users in a way that stays true to the
merits of a mobile experience.
There are many DIY methods for performing in-person,
mobile usability testing, including rigs that connect a camera directly to
the user’s device and native
applications that capture the user’s interactions and expressions
through the device’s camera. There’s even an approach lovingly called
“the hugging method”. Given the scope of one’s budget,
these methods could suffice. However, the User Experience team at Rightpoint
often takes a different approach to early-and-often usability testing on
mobile devices.
The Audience
At Rightpoint, we always aim to conduct tests with
people that have never participated in usability tests before. As we
meet with our test participants and engage them with various mobile
devices and operating systems, we work to make their experience as
natural and comfortable as we can without the test becoming overly
intrusive. When don’t you want this for your users,
right?
The Setup
Leveraging the UX team’s background in usability
testing of web and software experiences, we start by using a Point 2 View
USB camera and the software that comes with it to capture the test participant’s interactions with a
mobile device. These cameras are not only super easy to set up, but they
are flexible enough to enable participants to sit at a table and use
phones and tablets in a way that’s completely natural to them while we
view their interactions on a laptop.
Utilizing our laptop’s built-in camera, we use Photo Booth to capture the
user’s facial expressions, which also display on the laptop’s screen.
To bring it all together, we use the Screen Recording
feature of QuickTime on
our laptop to record the entire session. QuickTime records what the
Point 2 View software and Photo Booth capture plus audio from the
laptop’s microphone; pulling together a comprehensive record of the
usability session.
We find this combination of the Point 2 View
software, Photo Booth, and QuickTime works well for formal and informal
usability testing. Each piece of software allows us to fine tune the way
images are captured, the size and type of the files exported, and the
overall quality of the session’s recording.
This setup is effective, completely mobile, extremely
user friendly, and – perhaps most importantly
– inexpensive. It also enables us to empower our clients by
showing them how to set up the software and hardware so they have the
ability to run similar sessions themselves.