[Sigia-l] Remote Usability Testing (was: Re: Where Can You Rent User Testing Labs)

Mitchell Gass mitchell at participatorydesign.com
Wed Apr 23 11:53:01 EDT 2003


At 03:17 PM 4/22/2003 -0400, m o r r y asked:
>Does anyone know of a place that rents space for user testing in the NYC area?

At 10:17 AM 4/23/2003 -0400, m o r r y wrote:
>We don't need a separate observation room if there's a way we could record 
>the session that's not obtrusive. I'd imagine observation rooms bump up 
>the costs considerably.

Morry,

Market research facilities provide other services that can be very helpful 
for running in-person usability tests in other cities, such as 
receptionists, waiting areas, providing a computer and Internet connection, 
and taking care of backup participants ("floaters") if you use them. They 
can also recruit participants. If you have to do in-person tests and are 
willing to manage the details yourself, consider getting a meeting room in 
a hotel and renting mobile usability lab equipment. Leanne Waldal mentioned 
some mobile labs. Another is UserWorks' Lab-in-a-Box

   http://www.userworks.com/default.asp?page=products&sub=box

The latest version, which they demoed at this year's CHI conference, looked 
very nice.

For many tests of computer-based products and websites, I do remote 
usability testing, where participants are in a different location from the 
moderator and observers. I use a conferencing service, such as PlaceWare or 
WebEx, to let participants use a copy of the product running on my 
computer, and I interact with them during the test sessions by 
speakerphone. Test participants can be anywhere in the country, they can 
participate from work or home, and observers don't have to leave the 
office. With some refinements to the way I moderate, I'm getting nearly all 
of the findings I get from in-person testing at a fraction of the cost of 
conducting tests in other cities. The drawbacks - participants must have a 
high-speed Internet connection, and we can't see their faces - are almost 
always outweighed by the cost and time savings. It's especially valuable 
when participants are hard-to-get professionals who can't take the time to 
come a test facility. For my biggest client, all of the studies I've done 
in the last year and a half have been remote studies.

All the best with your test.

Mitchell Gass
uLab | PDA: Learning from Users | Designing with Users
Berkeley, CA 94707 USA
+1 510 525-6864 voice
+1 510 525-4246 fax
http://www.participatorydesign.com/





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