[Ayatana] [Usability] Cheap Open Source Morae Alternative

[Jan-Christoph Borchardt <inquata@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If we want good usability, we need to get open usability testing tools
going (again)!

You may want to read the original thread started by Allan Caeg at
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2009-December/msg00016.html
And on the wiki
http://live.gnome.org/UsabilityProject/Whiteboard/UsabilityTestingSuite

Unfortunately there hasn’t been much development on that front (or am
I missing something).

So I just went ahead and pushed a modified version of Andreas
Nilsson's small Python script »Pongo« to Launchpad:
https://launchpad.net/pongo – see the original at
http://www.andreasn.se/blog/?p=96

It works great so far, the major flaw is performance. I conducted a
test for Shotwell with it and the video was lagging extremely when the
photos were imported. Except for that it was fine, I could even do a
RTA by capturing showing the video to the participant. It was insanely
helpful, thanks again to Andreas. :)

As I am just starting out with Python, I don’t know how far and fast
this will go. Help is always appreciated. You can check planned
features on the Wiki or on the Launchpad project page.


Also, who will be at GUADEC next week? I’d be interested in meeting up
for talking about this.


Allan Caeg wrote:
> Hello UX people!
>
> I'm looking for a top-notch user testing tool like Morae. As an open
> source enthusiast, I want something that works on Linux (specifically,
> on GNOME). As a person with a tight budget, I want something affordable.
>
> Among many other features, Morae ( http://www.techsmith.com/morae.asp )
> records a video of the user while using the product via webcam along
> with the voice (for the think aloud protocol), and the screencast.
>
> I want to do those with open source software for work and open source
> contributions. What tool can you suggest? If there's no equivalent tool,
> is there an easy way to consolidate different open source apps like
> gtk-recordmydesktop, the Sound Recorder, Cheese, etc, to make them work
> as an all-in-one user testing tool like Morae?
>
> Regards,
> Allan