Lookback.io - See how people really use your app | Hacker News Reader

Lookback.io - See how people really use your app

lookback.io

80 pointsceeK44 comments

Congrats on the launch, looks impressive and very nice.

What caught my attention was how you managed to snap the keyboard and status bar and get the app past approval (which is what I assumed from the demo). But after giving it a go, it seems that your SDK doesn't actually capture the kbd and status bar.

Being curious, I did some further digging into your SDK and UIKit. I presume for the demo, you must have used a custom SDK build so that you could tap into some private APIs? You can get the UIWindow for the keyboard via public APIs (UIApplication's -windows) but the status bar is private (_statusBar ivar on UIApplication; easily accessible with -valueForKey:@"_statusBar"]). Note that _statusBar is a subclass of UIView (direct subclass of _UIScrollToTopInitiatorView which is a subclass of UIView).

So for anyone else wondering how they capture the full screen, that's the way it seems to be done :)

Oh, by the way, if anyone's doing screen / view capturing, I highly recommend looking into the new iOS7 APIs (-drawViewHierarchyInRect:afterScreenUpdates: and -snapshotViewAfterScreenUpdates:).

Their FAQ mentions that they use quite a few private APIs.

I seem to have missed the FAQ - thanks for the pointer. For me, a lot of value would be derived by having the ability for any user to send us a video of the problems / questions they're having (e.g., how do I do X, etc).

I realise that Lookback is mainly geared towards internal testing but it should be easy to aid the support workflow, too. Capturing the status bar is the only private API you actually need to use to fully recreate the screen, although I don't know whether the team behind Lookback is using additional priv APIs for other parts.

We're working on a version of the library that is AppStore-safe, e g for the bug reporting use case. It's not nearly as performant, but works good enough, at least in iOS 7.

Thanks for all the private API hints :D

I must have missed the info on their website, but are users being notified that they are being recorded?

You create a special test build of the app that you send to users using something like TestFlight, at the end of the video, you see the lady turn off recording, so I assume you can turn it on through the same interface

A closer look at the lookback.io site makes me think the user will know they're being recorded.

> Send your app to users using TestFlight and ask them to start recording. You can also ask them to perform certain tasks you've prepared, typically sent via email.

(I'm one of co-founders of Lookback)

As sksksk noticed there is an interface that comes with Lookback from which the user can turn on and off the recording. In newer versions of our SDK there is also a small indicator in the top menu so the user doesn't forget that the app is currently recording.

Doesn't work in FireFox at all.

Thanks for this comment. I was wondering why it was taking too long to load - it turns out I just needed to switch browsers.

It looks interesting.

On a presentation note:

1. Use a tripod for your camera. 2. please fix your lights! You probably aren't hung over, but the lighting suggests baggy eyes. Lighting is easy. Use window light. Heck, you are even shooting with with a front-facing camera on your phone, so it should be easy to pick some lighting that works nicely :-)

Both of these things are cheap or free, and will drastically improve your presentation, IMO.

Cheers!

> 1. Use a tripod for your camera.

I understood that this is the camera display from the phone as the user is using your app...is that not correct? Because I thought it was kinda cool...

EDIT: fellowshipofone's response seems to confirm :)

that doesn't mean you couldn't sit the phone on a tripod / stand (I think thats what the above post meant)

That would have lacked the realism of some one standing, holding their phone though.

Are the product shots of a big mac realistic? No, product shots are always studio lit and unrealistic, but you do what it takes to sell the product.

In this instance I agree that better (less realistic) lighting would show the product in a more favourable light. (excuse the pun).

It's not "deceiving the customer" it's just advertising, and it works, we shouldn't shy away from that because of some notion of "realism".

I still think this misses the point. We're looking at a 'report' of a fictional user session when suddenly the user, who we believe we're watching interact with the app, begins to address us. It's clever and shouldn't have been done any other way!

I think they were going for more of an authentic look rather than a polished look. What they are showing is more closer to what you are likely to see from your users.

If you're not taking simple, easy steps to improve your presentation, what you're being isn't authentic but sloppy. You dress down in old jeans and a t-shirt, not the shoes you work in the garden with.

vince, i think you're missing the point. the video stream is an integrated part of the product

Exactly, I don't think most participants will spend hours in front of a mirror to "casually dress down" before testing your product (nor do UX researchers, who are presumably the primary target audience care).

The entire application is centered around recording the users while they are really using your application. Nobody really uses a tripod on their phone and I would doubt you have the best lighting when you're just searching for a song on spotify.

Users are not going to have lights, or stand in correct place for lights. So you would see awesome clean well lit video in their examples, and horrible dark noisy video from your users. Might feel like there was a disconnect. Better to get a realistic example in my opinion.

Nicely done! The automatic logging of custom view names in the timeline is a nice touch. Are you planning browser/web(app) support as well?

I'm currently using Reflector to record the screen, along with a separate camera to record the user's face and hands. It's a more complex setup that makes remote testing significantly more difficult, so there is definitely value in this, if the price is right.

Yep, browser/web app is on the way.

Does the user need to approve the recording of your face and screen? If not this could be a serious problem when someone with a mildly-nsfw app (but acceptable to app store) decides the record all the naughty stuff their users do and blackmail them.

puts on tinfoil hat

I don't get it: it's beta but it's already been used by companies. Should I be in doubt when I see this in a landing page? It looks like they bought the theme with that and decided to keep it.

Of course we didn't buy the theme :) It's used by a lot of companies already. It's beta because it just launched.

Been trying Lookback for the test phase of the latest version of our app and the feedback there is good, but seeing users using your app and interacting with it is priceless!

Wow. This is fantastic to get that much feedback on how users are using an app. Are there any other tools like this on the market currently?

http://www.appsee.com/ is another company that does something similar.

Anything similar that supports Android?

There is also http://delight.io

This looks pretty good, I could imagine using this to do preliminary user tests or even full blown studies.

Nitpicky: but please don't have video auto play. Eek.

I wonder if this can be used with Phonegap?

Hey, also cofounder here. It should work fine, but you'll have to write a little bit of Objective-C for it. We plan to make it a drop-in kind of thing for PhoneGap, RubyMotion and other such tools.

That would be cool. This looks like a very useful tool especially in the initial development phase, where Phonegap also happens to be useful.

Great idea! Will be testing this out.

Will this work on games as well?

Yes. I haven't optimized it for games yet (there are several shortcuts you can take in such a scenario), but it works fine for the OpenGL games I've tried with.

Awesome. If you want help with/need a Unity3D wrapper, get in touch.

Yes, that would be great! I'm nevyn@lookback.io, just email me or leave your details here and I'll contact you. Thanks!

YGM

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