Conducting usability tests for Mobile Websites and Applications can be tricky without the appropriate equipment. Recently I sat in on some observations for a new Mobile App, all-in-all it went really well, but I couldn't help but think the equipment could have been better. There were restrictions applied to the candidates, where they were unable to move the device from its observation cradle, this resulted in a reduction in natural movement and behaviour.
Jan Evans of Fusion Alliance has written a summary of Setup options for Mobile Usability Testing, the article looks at a variety of usability test equipment for Mobile devices and includes the Pros and Cons of each - these range from Wearable, Screen Capture applications, Document Cameras, Specific mounts/testing sleds and Do It Yourself solutions.
Mobile Screen Capture Applications
- Reflector App - Capture the screen of your iOS device and save it as a video file for later review
- UX Recorder - Recording tool for usability professionals, Records both user actions (swipes, taps, scrolling) and video of the user via the device’s camera
- Mouseflow - Records videos of your site visitors and generates heatmaps, useful for Mobile Web Sites
- Userlytics.com - A mobile app usability testing service (1 Free test per month)
- CaptureRecord - A useful way to capture the Mobile Screen within your iOS Mobile app (Software Developer API)
Do-it-Yourself Mobile Usability Testing
Related articles
- A rather serious post about usability testing of mobile software
- SXSW 2012 DIY Mobile Usability Testing
- Usability Testing for Mobile Scenarios of Fragmented Attention - Research paper (PDF)
- 10 Tips for Mobile Usability Testing
- Another 10 Tips for Mobile Usability Testing
- Mobile testing toolbox - Part 1 by Amber DeRosa
- How Google fine tunes its search engine - Insight into how Google use Mobile Usability testing to improve usability (Video)
- Filed under:
- Usability
- Mobile Usability Testing
- Posted by:
- James Griffin
- Dated:
- December 28, 2012
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