[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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