We've completely removed Morea from our testing environment for a
number of reasons:
* Doesn't work on Mac (we test both Mac/Windows and need a solution
that will work on both)
* Proprietary video format that can only be edited in their video editor
* Video editor — have you tried to use this thing? It's like trying to
pull a jet ski w/a semi. Way too complicated for what you need for
editing video. Hey Morea, take some clues from iMovie.
* While the note taking and marking capabilities are nice, we never
used them. We took notes in our own research framework that allows us
to tag each observation and do much better analysis. Additionally, the
facilitator takes notes on their script.
* Reliability issues. We've had too many cases where Morea video got
corrupted. Client's weren't too happy.
* Can't record video of sites that have streaming video. It kills the
recording.
* Setting up Morea required giving ourselves a 2 hour window each time
just to make sure patches were up to date, Windows was working well,
video cameras were working, etc.
So, how do we do it now? Well, our lab consists of
* Two (2) Intel based Macs. This lets us test both Windows and Mac.
* We use OS X's built in screen sharing to view the test participant's
machine. We open an iChat session to get the picture-in-picture and
have audio.
* Recording is done via SnapZPro.
Disadvantages:
* We have to use two pieces of software (iChat, SnapZ), instead of one
integrated solution.
* Video rendering takes longer than Morea
Advantages:
* We can test both Mac/Win
* Stability — it's never crashed, never corrupted a video file
* Setup literally takes 10-15 minutes compared to 1.5-2 hours
* Videos are in a standard .mov/.mpg format that we can edit with
pretty much any video editor
* We can edit videos with something simple like iMove w/o having to
edit them
* Total cost of two Intel iMacs ($1200 ea) and SnapZ ($69) = <$2500.
For Morea, we'd need two equivalent PCs ($800-1200 ea), plus a Mac
($1200), plus Morea ($1200), plus SnapZ ($69) = $3700-4900 depending
on whether or not you buy on PC and one Mac (run Parallels), or two
PCs and one Mac.
We're going to be looking at Silverback for some future tests and give
it a try. I like the highlighting effect for clicks. I'm not sure how
the note taking capabilities will work when the participant is using
the machine. Perhaps you can take notes using a remote machine? I'll
have to see.
Cheers!
Todd Zaki Warfel
President, Design Researcher
Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully.
----------------------------------
Contact Info
Voice: (215) 825-7423
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
AIM: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Blog: http://toddwarfel.com
Twitter: zakiwarfel
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In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice, they are not.
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