UX Blog

Mobile Usability Testing

I’ve been doing some investigation into various combinations of simple, lightweight guerrilla mobile device testing hardware & software, listing their pros and cons.

I have also tried various pieces of iOS software that do this (including UX Recorder and Magi Test) but on my iPhone5 the experience of browsing a website while running recording software in the background was incredibly laggy and damaged the browsing experience sufficiently to invalidate the test.

The below methods, while not ideal, show that by combining a few pieces of technology together it is possible to come up with a solution which is unobtrusive to users, while providing footage that is of a high enough quality to serve as a client deliverable.

I ran the tests sequentially, adding additional hardware or software to the solution as I identified gaps in the footage.

It's not perfect, but I think it is good enough.

Test 1: Using Reflector to record the phone’s screen

Test recording using the Reflector app for iOS device screen mirroring, while using the Bellroy website.

http://youtu.be/C48GSYSCRsk

Conclusions:

Video footage is of high quality with little lag

Video footage does not indicate where user is tapping on the screen

Video footage does not capture user's face, hands or voice

Test 2: Using Silverback and Reflector to record the phone’s screen and the user’s face & voice

Test recording using the Reflector app for iOS device screen mirroring to send video to the Mac desktop, while using Silverback to capture the desktop, incorporating iSight audio and video, while using the Amaze website.

http://youtu.be/WUsGMURlp6M

Conclusions:

Video footage is of high quality with little lag

Video footage does not indicate where user is tapping on the screen

Video footage captures user's face and voice

Video footage does not capture user's hands or voice

Test 3: Using Silverback and Reflector to record the phone’s screen and the user’s face & voice, and a webcam to record the user’s interactions

Test recording using the Reflector app for iOS device screen mirroring to send video to the Mac desktop, while using Silverback to capture the desktop, incorporating iSight audio and video, and a device-mounted webcam to capture the user’s hands and screen interactions, while using the Bellroy website. The device-mounted webcam is a basic usb webcam attached to an iPhone car caddy which transmits video to the Mac. The Photo Booth app is then used to display video on the screen for Silverback to capture.

http://youtu.be/W9B3dPZXKso

Conclusions:

Video footage is of high quality with little lag

Video footage does not indicate where user is tapping on the screen

Video footage captures user's face, voice and hands

Video footage of hands is backwards (this is due to the webcam and missing Mac drivers)

Links for reference:

Reflector - Wirelessly mirror your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch screen to any Mac or PC. - $12.99 http://www.airsquirrels.com/reflector/

Silverback - Guerrilla usability testing software for designers and developers (Mac only) - $69.95 http://silverbackapp.com

The guide to effectively A/B test your email creative

The following is a list of UX techniques, tools and resources which I collated for a series of UX workshops I ran at the Future Everything event in Manchester Town Hall on 31st March 2014.

The list is intended to act as a kickstarter (not THAT kind of kickstarter) to those new to the world of User Experience. It's not an exhaustive list, and there's probably some glaring omissions, but hopefully it will be useful for people.

Feel free to share 

1) User research tools & techniques

Online surveys & polls - Surveymonkey, Polldaddy

1-to-1 interviews

Focus groups

Market & industry research & whitepapers - Global Web Index, Forrester, Gartner, eMarketer, Econsultancy, Neilson Norman group, Think with Google, comScore, Accenture, Cap Gemini, KPMG

Analytics - Google Analytics, Webtrends, Adobe Sitecatalyst, Clicktale, Crazyegg, MixPanel

2) Designing/prototyping tools & techniques

Gamestorming cheat sheet

Wireframing - Pen & Paper, Axure, Balsamiq, Wireframe.cc, UX Pin

RWD Frameworks - Twitter Bootstrap, Zurb Foundation, Sculpt

Mobile prototyping tools - Pen & Paper, Proto.io, POP App, Marvel app, Prototyper, Codiqa, Fluid UI, Solidify app, Giveabrief, Flinto, Blueprint, Reflow, Framer

UI pattern libraries - Pattern Tap, pttrns, Patternry, YPatterns, Mailchimp

3) Usability Test & Validation tools & techniques

Guerrilla testing - My Slideshare prez

Moderated lab testing - Morae, Silverback, lookback.io

Eye tracking - Tobii, EyeTribe

Remote testing - What Users Do, UserTesting.com, Loop11, User Zoom, Usabilla, Optimal Workshop (suite of tools)

Other useful resources:

http://uxmastery.com/resources/tools/

http://usability.com/ux-tools/

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2013/08/30-essential-ux-tools/

http://uxdesign.cc/ux-tools/

http://uxmovement.com/resources/4-best-design-pattern-libraries/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/15/40-helpful-resources-on-user-interface-design-patterns/

http://remoteresear.ch/tools/

http://www.usefulusability.com/24-usability-testing-tools/

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiUefdff4crxcGMtTkFlRExtWUZ2ZUNSbEllak51RkE&hl=en#gid=0

Make Sense: Information Architecture for Everybody

http://www.slideshare.net/AbbyCovert/make-sense-information-architecture-for-everybody

Why is it so hard to make things make sense when making something for others? In a world where everything is getting more complex and we are all overwhelmed by the amount of information we encounter daily, there is a growing understanding of the tools and processes that are used to make sense of complex subjects and situations. These tools aren't hard to learn or even tough to implement but they are also not part of many people's education.

Information Architecture is a practice of making sense. A set of principles, lessons and tools to help anyone make sense of any thing. Whether you are - a student or professional, a designer, technologist or small business owner, an intern or executive - learn how information architecture can help you make sense of your next endeavor.

This talk premiered at Pratt on Feb 24, 2014.