GR's dashboard

;)

I have got accounts on mogulus, justinTV and seesmic but i don't really like thos services. I like it simple, like Qik.

Thank you for willing to use Qik as the primary one. but we do have integration with mogulus, justinTV and seesmic so that as long as you set up account with them and configure in your QIk profile. both your video from QIk phones and video from webcam will be kept in your mogulus, justinTV or seesmic account.
Check it out

The idea is to use the same service for all video posts. I don't want to switch depending on source.

There other webcam streaming service already. have a look at below service: justinTV, mogulus. seesmic

I would love to have this as well.

My problem is, I need to run this software on my Mac, but the user I'm observing may have a PC. I'm not sure how to resolve this problem, but I have a serious need to do remote testing of a web-based application in the next month or two. If anyone has a solution aside from Morae, which is a bit more than budget/need allows, please email me!

I'd love to see a PC based verion too - not fussed about OS. I'm currently PC based and there's not much out there in this price range. If I add the mac to run it, it starts to come pretty close to Morae in terms of £££. – Lucy Spence, on September 10, 2008 12:32

This is exactly the feature I've been looking for! I'd love it. – SamUhl, on August 31, 2008 18:45

Cool. Thanks! – ethomaz, on August 29, 2008 01:16

It would probably look just as sexy, but it will be more intutitive. List with selection on top and viewer on the bottom is how it's done in any mail reader, news aggregator or anything else for that matter. – GR, on August 28, 2008 17:19

All valid and interesting points. I'd agree that context is important if you're trying to map exact behaviour. So if you were running a highly scientific test for an academic paper you would probably want to test a large sample size in their natural environment to minimise any potential errors. You also have the issue of cognitive load which will be slightly higher if people are using an unfamiliar OS.

However none of these issues really reflect the usability of the site, only the users interaction with the browser and OS. For instance, how does maximising the browser window affect the usability of a particular navigation schema, UI widget or process flow? There are some specific instances where this could become a problem, such as where the main activity of the website is tightly coupled with the browser or OS. But they are pretty niche and unlikely to come up for the majority of sites.

If you've got a good moderator they should be able to determine the difference between problems with the site and problems resulting from an unusual OS or environment. For instance users not being able to find files to upload because of unfamiliar widget controls rather than the complexity of the site GUI. Also the effect of the OS is going to be minor compared to things like poor task design or bad moderation. So good processes are a much bigger factor to the success of your test.

The ultimate goal of guerilla usability testing is to to gain design insight rather than statistical validity. It's essentially formative, qualitative testing rather than evaluative, quantitate testing. So small variances like environment become much less important than big issues like the user not being able to complete the sign-up process. As such, we believe that a small amount of guerilla testing is better than no testing at all.

I don't have any hard stats, but we run lots of usability tests at Clearleft, and we've never come across a test subject having problems with the OS, let alone confusing an OS problem with a site usability problem. So you should be safe :-) – Andy Budd, on August 28, 2008 09:23

I agree with Jan, it would be interesting to hear of some evidence and/or research that the platform the website is being tested on doesn't affect the user's experience and thus reaction to the website.

For instance, one of the things I so often see users doing on a Windows machine - almost by unconcious compulsion - is maximize the browser. You can't maximize as such on a Mac, and the maximize button is in a different place. Then there's the browser chrome, which can be radically different on a Mac. Does this not affect the user's response?

These points remind me of a recent Boagworld podcast and post regarding context. See: http://boagworld.com/usability/conten... and http://boagworld.com/podcast/127/ – Charles Roper, on August 28, 2008 08:19

Could you elaborate more on this topic (maybe on your blog)? I was always unsure about how the subjects testing web sites/apps react to being seated at a Mac. I always had to make sure we had some Wintel machines handy for usability tests. – Jan Brašna, on August 26, 2008 19:56

Definitely, Slife can track by filename keyword. All you have to do is create a new activity and then create a new item with, say, ".doc" or "report", under Web & Documents (in the Activity editor window). – ethomaz, on August 23, 2008 12:42

Thanks tinti. When we come up with something that works we will definitely let everybody here knows. The feedback here has been really great. – ethomaz, on August 23, 2008 12:38

I see, right now it's more of a water blue. Thanks for pointing it out.

Hey thanks for the suggestion. Do you think it would look nicer at the bottom? More efficient?