Loading Profile...
great app with some tweaks needed
great product guys. couple of points that would make the product awesome though.
1) for a usability app, you should probably correct the user messaging when creating a project that says "click the new session button above" when actually its not above, it's below and the + / - buttons don't have tooltips to say what they do (in fact none of the buttons have tooltips!)
2) secondly as a feature request how about a HUD window with a checkable list of tasks for the user to complete, saves handing them a list prior to the test.
1) for a usability app, you should probably correct the user messaging when creating a project that says "click the new session button above" when actually its not above, it's below and the + / - buttons don't have tooltips to say what they do (in fact none of the buttons have tooltips!)
2) secondly as a feature request how about a HUD window with a checkable list of tasks for the user to complete, saves handing them a list prior to the test.
I’m nearly happy!
Follow this discussion to get notifications on your dashboard.
Create a customer community for your own organization
Plans starting at $19/month
-
Inappropriate?Hi Alex
Glad you like Silverback, and thanks for your feedback.
1.) The 'New Session' button is in the top right corner of the application, above the message which says "click the new session button above". There are + / - buttons in the bottom bar for those who are familiar with that Apple UI standard, but when we usability tested the appication many people didn't realise what they did or how to start a new session, so we added the labeled buttons at the top. We'll look into adding tooltips in the next product update.
2.) The wording and explanation of tasks is very subjective, and should be handled verbally by a test moderator/facilitator on a case-by-case basis, at the start of each task. That gives you the freedom to adjust each task based on a participant's behaviour, during the test. Participants should be reassured that it's the software/website that's being tested, and not their ability - my fear would be that giving them a formal checklist to complete (on screen or written down) would put them on edge, as it would feel like a test, leading to skewed results.
thanks,
Paul
-
Inappropriate?hey paul
regards point one, i downloaded the app this morning and those buttons weren't present - perhaps you are linking to an old version?
check my screenshot
regards point 2 - i totally agree that usability testing shouldn't feel like a test of the users ability, but we have always found that having a list of distinct tasks makes a user feel a lot more at ease.
we avoid anything too detailed or leading and stick to tasks like "create a new account..." etc
this gives you a "control" scenario that is very useful for comparing and contrasting different users methodologies across the same tasks and also prevents any unintentional "steering" that can happen during verbal tasks...
its an easy thing to set-up on a test machine anyway - we could run a window alongside silverback with the list on it.
have you guys seen testuff? (http://www.testuff.com/) it's more focussed on software testing but they implement this kind of thing really well
oh and how about tooltips for the +/- buttons ;-)
I’m stoked
-
Inappropriate?Thanks for the link to Testuff, I personally haven't come across it - I'll share it round and ask some of the other guys'n'gals here.
I see your problem with Silverback (thanks for the screenshot). At that stage, the 'Hooray' panel should only take up the bottom right corner, revealing a sessions list above it. You should only see it like this with the gorilla icon, when you first launch the app. Does it look like this when you begin every new project? Presumably when you add new sessions, the session list becomes visible?
I'll raise this bug with our developer and get back to you.
I’m mildly concerned
-
Inappropriate?it looks like this every time i choose new project.
actually while playing with the software more it has now locked my entire system up, and i cant even force-quit the application! eek!
I’m a bit annoyed
1 Comment
Add a comment
-
Hi Alex, I was wondering if you were still having problems with Silverback? If so, please let me know and we can look into it for you. -
Inappropriate?Hey Andy
I had to ditch it for now as it was causing the system issues mentioned above. I'll hold off for the next version.
Great potential though!1 Comment Add a comment
-
Hey Alex, we've not had any other reports of system crashes, so would you mind helping us get to the bottom of the problem. First off can you let me know what OS you're using, what hardware you've got and what other applications you had running at the time of the crash. What were you doing just prior to the crash (recording, exporting etc) and does it happen every time?
Secondly, could you send me a copy of your Silverback crash logs and also your system logs? This should help us track down the cause of the crash. and hopefully hint at a fix. -
Inappropriate?Hey Andy i was running 10.5.4 on a 24" 2.16mhz core duo imac 3gb ram
At the time of testing i had Safari, Mail and Flash 8 running alongside Silverback. The crash happened consistently 3 times after the initial one.
Prior to the crash i was about to start a test, i had hit the new project button when the system hung. I believe my version of silverback must've been somehow broken as Paul suggested above - check the screenshot, the GUI is misrendered and missing buttons...
I have since changed machines so don't have the crash logs unfortunately and i'm a little nervous to reinstall on the new box.1 Comment Add a comment
-
Unfortunately as you're the only person reporting this bug so far it's not going to be something we're able to fix without getting hold of your crash log. Is there any chance you could reinstall it on your old machine and run a test to see if it's still hanging?
I can understand your nervousness of installing it on your new machine, but it's definitely not a known problem so was most likely something specific to your old system set up. So you should be OK. However it would be really useful to know if it was happening on your new machine as well. -
Inappropriate?Hey Andy
I will stick it on the old machine later on and let you know how we get on.
In the meantime where can i get a clean installer from?
alex1 Comment Add a comment
-
The version on the site should be good to go - http://silverbackapp.com/
-
Inappropriate?HI Alex.
We're working on the next release of Silverback at the moment, and looking to squash these bugs. Did you have any more progress on this?
Regarding the blank 'New Project' screen that you took a screenshot of, try running this in the Terminal to reset Silverback's preferences, and try again to see if that solves the problem for you:
defaults delete com.clearleft.Silverback
thanks,
Paul
EMPLOYEE
