Silverback: Guerilla usability testing | Hacker News Reader

Silverback: Guerilla usability testing

silverbackapp.com

27 pointsakkartik16 comments

Don't forget to resize the window and watch the background move!

OP, your title reads like a cheap ad. It would be more appropriate to put the main feature/benefit in the title and stay more neutral, e.g. "Silverback is a usability tool that let's you..."

edit: title has been updated since my comment

Huh?

What is the overlay of the testers face good for without any eyetracking capabilities?

Also there don't seem to be any facilities to correlate tests to one another, to setup goals, perform any kind of timings, heck there isn't even a mouse cursor heatmap.

Calling this "usability testing software" is a bit of a stretch imho. Glorified Desktop Recorder perhaps...

PS: But the gorilla is cute!

What is the overlay of the testers face good for without any eyetracking capabilities?

Facial expressions? Whether someone looks confused or is smiling?

That was my first thought, too, but do people really do that?

Sometimes something on the screen would make me laugh, but other than that I doubt you could read much on my face while browsing.

That's exactly it. It's extremely useful to see when your app causes delight or confusion.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/UsabilityTestingwithM...

Perhaps you don't find it useful without more rigor; that is up to you. But it most definitely is usability testing.

Most startups never do usability testing. Or put it off too late. Focusing on a million details is a great way to put it off further. Just put the laptop in front of the first person walking down the hallway. The first 30 seconds will be more invaluable than any heatmap.

"What is the overlay of the testers face good for without any eyetracking capabilities?"

It's good to detect boredom, distraction, urgency. That pause in the cursor, was he confused? Oh, she just got distracted by somebody.

I just watched myself grow increasingly frantic as the time ran out on an auction.

Wake up sheeple, you don't need no stinkin' eye-trackin'. Just get it in front of somebody already.

Just put the laptop in front of the first person walking down the hallway. The first 30 seconds will be more invaluable than any heatmap.

Well, if that is your method then why not just shoulder-surf?

It's good to detect boredom, distraction, urgency. That pause in the cursor, was he confused? Oh, she just got distracted by somebody.

Erm, isn't it about the bare minimum for a meaningful usability test to ensure the tester doesn't get interrupted?

Sorry, I just don't see what the webcam overlay adds over any plain old desktop recorder (some of which, ironically, can add a webcam overlay too).

> Well, if that is your method then why not just shoulder-surf?

Recording the session is useful for further analysis, and sharing with other team members.

> isn't it about the bare minimum for a meaningful usability test to ensure the tester doesn't get interrupted?

It's useful to test software in the environment it will be used, where a user may well be distracted or have other things to do. Does the interface cope with distractions? Is it easy for someone to resume where they left off?

That this is usability testing unfortunately says more about usability than it says about the usage of this.

Most startups don't do usability testing because it would be quite pointless. There is a world of difference between a user and a customer. Usability testing is for refinement not for innovation.

I have worked with more than a hundred startups and there absolutely no correlation between success of the product/service and usability testing.

Usability testing pre launch is nothing but a placebo effect. In 5 years it will be death and for very good reasons.

You don't find it a good thing to test before launch? Heads up - everytime you put your app before someone else and ask what they think, you're usability testing. What if your customer gets to your homepage, goes "huh?" and leaves immediately - you'll be able to find those kind of issues and fix them before your app goes public.

If people go huh? When they arrive to your page you probably should get a proper designer.

You can mark the video with chapters, and you could structure that someway, on your own of course.

Firstly I disagreed your comment, but now I see it's a really poor usability testing tool. From the 4 "new" features they highlight there is just one that is fundamental to the problem they want to solve.

Heatmap is a must-have, task analysis support should be high on their priorities (they announce it, but I can't see it anywhere).

For those interested in the topic, I highly recommend this book by Steve Krug http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-Yourself/dp/0...

This app looks like it would work well with Krug's recommendations.

We use silverback every week, and it's a joy to use. Once we've run 10 or so test we queue up all the videos, watch them back to back, cringing every time somebody trying to search in a tags box etc, making a list of the screw ups and tally marking every time we see them. Painful, but amazing feedback.

Start the video demo at 2:25 to skip the incidental details.

EDIT: And you can stop at 3:40 to skip the other incidental details.

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