Recently I shared with you guys how we’re getting scrappy with Remote Usability Testing on Mobile Devices. We’ve also been hanging out in coffee shops with our users and testing our mobile prowess in person.
We needed a way to record these sessions, and I got inspired by these guys. But I wanted to come up with a way to record in person mobile tests in a mac environment.
Over the past few months we’ve ramped up our usability testing efforts, including testing our mobile apps. In order to test on mobile devices it’s generally assumed that tests will be with local users, or semi-local users, since the options for live remote mobile testing are limited.
After driving to Columbia, SC to do a couple of tests in the field (and a particularly long night of dreaming in iPhone screens) I woke up the next morning with a mission: figure out how to do remote mobile testing.
Not everyone has time in their day to stop and watch usability tests, but we’ve found a couple of ways to share the UX Love in quick bits and pieces.
Our User Experience team hosted a pizza and usability test viewing party to help people find the time to check out a couple of videos. Lots of folks from all our departments (even The HR!) stopped in to nom some pizza and watch our users succeed and struggle with the app. Watching the videos collectively is like seeing live music with hundreds of your friends. We could all put on our headphones and check out the videos ourselves, but sharing the experience can be inspirational.
Though often under-appreciated, well written help documentation can improve the user experience and get people back on track when they stumble in complicated workflows.
It’s true that you can provide a better experience if you can avoid sending users off someplace else while they are hard at work, but sometimes people just need that extra boost of confidence. Your users need to know that the next step they take isn’t going to blow up their computer from the inside. It’s even better if there’s an understanding Chimp human behind that content that knows they probably don’t want to be spending time reading how-to steps anyway.
That’s why our help content writer (that’s me) is part of our User Experience team. Read More