[Sigia-l] Screen and Audio Recording for Usability Testing

[Lamantia, Joseph C.]

We've just finished designing and building a dedicated usabillity lab that allows real-time monitoring and DVD recording of all onscreen activity, as well as audio and video feeds of participant activity and comments, and mpeg / avi export of the captured results.

Wwe use a scan converter for the feed from the the participant's monitor, combine all the individual feeds with a basic mixing board, and output the master feed to a DVD-RW machine / video monitor.  The quality is good enough to read text input, depending on the chosen monitor resolution.

The total A/V equipment budget for our initial setup cost in the neighboorhood of $6k, and the scan converter was a substantial component of this price.  

I'd be happy to share specs on specific components, and experiences with various test setups.

Cheers,
Joe Lamantia

Joe.Lamantia > Information.Architect > PTC
jlamantia at ptc.com : 781.370.5173





-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Shaw [mailto:metadata02 at yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 9:34 AM
To: sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: [Sigia-l] Screen and Audio Recording for Usability Testing


We're looking for recommendations for adding video and
audio recording to our usability lab set up.   We want
to record a test subject's screen content for later
viewing and need to be able to clearly see text
entered into a web form as well as the screen results
of mouse clicks.  Has anyone successfully used scan
converters for this purpose?  If so, are there any
recommended brands and price levels?  
 
In addition to capturing screen content, we plan to
videotape the test subject working at the PC and use a
microphone to capture audio of  the test subject's
comments.  We realize that with this method it's
unlikely that the audio will be synchronized with the
PC screen recording.  What methods have been used to
record the audio and the PC screen activity
simultaneously so they can be played back in sync?
 
Lee Shaw
Web Architect

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