Mary - I had the opportunity to do some testing with Todd using his homemade system and definitely think it's a better solution than Morea - it's streamlined, it gets the technology out of the way so you can focus on observing the user experience.
On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 8:21 PM, Todd Zaki Warfel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > 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 > ---------------------------------- > In theory, theory and practice are the same. > In practice, they are not. > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- ~ will "Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are design problems" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Will Evans | User Experience Architect tel +1.617.281.1281 | [EMAIL PROTECTED] twitter: https://twitter.com/semanticwill --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
