The "Floozy Speak" blog has some well thought-out recommendations for future versions of Morae, including more robust video and editing features and the ability to add more useful metadata to files.
http://www.floozyspeak.com/blog/archives/2005_03.html#000862
Our report of experiences using Morae for video and data capture at Electronic Ink's usability lab has been posted to the Morae site:
http://www.techsmith.com/casestudies/morae/electronicink.asp
An article in this week's New York Time's magazine discusses a new technology for measuring media viewing. The Portable People Meter (PPM) by Arbitron is a pager-sized device that "listens" to a high frequency audio signal that will be potentially embedded in TV, radio and even film and mp3 content. By recording what the listener is exposed to, the system is much more accurate, flexible and comprehensive than current methods of audience measurement (e.g. surveys, dedicated set-top boxes) and works inside and outside the home.
See Arbitron's site for more detailed explanation and technical background.
I'm just starting to learn about Knoa, desktop-installed software for measuring and reporting user performance and errors. It seems focused on the enterprise (e.g. SAP) market.
The software is purported to measure:
It sounds like it has the potential to collect usage data for identifying usability issues, meauring ROI, etc.
I plan to add updates as I learn more about the product.
After working through some technical issues with Nate Bolt, I was able to get Ethnio Alpha up and running. Think of it as a streamlined, faster version of WebEx, designed specifically around usability testing.
Nate provided me with some details about the benefits of the application:
Alpha 1. Designed specifically for usability testing 2. Participant install is 150k, not 8mb 3. Speed is 2-3x faster than webex, no lag ever 4. Works with dialup participants 5. Clickstream data of participant behavior 6. Shared moderator script view for all observers (everything moderator and observers type is linked to timecode as well) Beta 1. Built-in online recruiting screener tool that generates one line of code you can send to your clients to recruit live users 2. Automatic video recording to avi, flash, or wmv 3. VoIP service that records phone calls and merges with video recording to give you highlights like the following:
Just learned about a new piece of software called "Ethnio Alpha" from Bolt Peters that enables remote web usability testing. You can download the alpha version, although I was hard pressed to find any instructions or get it to work, but I've contact them about that. I'll follow-up when I can get this functioning (assuming that it does).
The Core77 Boards site has a discussion forum on Design Research, that currently features a thread on the future of design research methodologies. Worth taking a look at and making a contribution.
The UK Design Council has identified four key trends that will impact design, and provides links to more detailed resources. The areas are:
The common theme of these areas is the potential to design products with greater capabilities, flexibility and functionality than every before.
Related, are emerging design issues:
Succesful designers will need to appreciate and incorporate technological, social and other requirements as design plays a role in more areas of society.
I've just completed some initial work to redesign the site for the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA) - Human Factors Section. I am vice chair of the Human Factors section and author/webmaster of the site.
The redesign was driven by member survey responses, and the site/blog's primay content will be to provide HF reference materials and guidelines for industrial and product designers.
The site will also include content, and potentially a section on Emerging Technologies for Design Research that will share content with this blog.
We've been using Morae for about six months at Electronic Ink, and it's terrific. We haved used it for about a dozen or so Web site, software application and paper prototype (PDF) studies. We've also at least one area for improvement that we'll pass on to TechSmith - it would be useful to pause in the middle of recording either for a break or between continuous sessions rather than stopping and starting separate video files.
