Today’s post is a simple little usability testing “tech tip.” It’ll help you run a remote usability test with a participant running an app or browser on your test machine while other remote observers are watching the session.
My investigation into this started when I was asked to conduct remote usability test sessions for my client. (I am an independent user experience consultant who does both interaction design and usability testing.) The client asked if they would be able to listen and watch the test sessions in real time.
Now I know that there’s probably an expensive software package or two out there that would give me the capabilities I needed, but I wasn’t in the mood to spend $800 – $1,2000 USD on something I may not use for another few months. So I poked around the Internetz and discussion groups (including the usability listerv that dares not speak its name…) looking for guidance on how to run usability test sessions with a combo of tools that met my requirements.
In my search I found a suggestion for employing GoToMyPC for participants to access the test system. The reasons for using it were pretty compelling: GoToMyPC offers extremely low latency and high performance. And most importantly for me as the test moderator, it lets me and the participant trade off control of the test system in a modeless manner. That is, when I want to quickly trade control of the test system I can do it on GTMPC without having to go to a menu and select “give (or take) control.”
That still left me with the problem of how to allow observers to watch. Then it occurred to me that any old online meeting service would do; all I’d have to do is run it on the test system, invite the observers to the meeting, and distribute a phone conference bridge to all parties.
So I tried it this week, and it worked like a charm: the test participant had low latency and high performance as they used the application, I had the ability to assume control from the participant as needed without wasting time and unduly interrupting the flow of the test; and observers could watch the test session unfold in real time. (They could also pass me questions via the meeting chat capability or via out-of-band IM.)
So, here’s the deets: for remote usability testing with remote observers, here’s what you need:
- A GoToMyPC account
- An online meeting account (most if not any will do)
- A phone conference bridge
And here’s how you set everything up. Please note that this requires that you be sitting at the test system; aka the target PC for GTMPC:
- Designate your test system as the target PC for the GTMPC service. This is the PC you want to remotely control.
- Temporarily change your GTMPC login, password and target PC access code for use with the test participants. You’ll be sending them these credentials, so make sure you’re not using your “standard” personal usernames and passwords.
- When you’re ready to run a test session, convene an online meeting from the test system with your observers, and allow the observers to view the test system’s desktop.
- Send your test participant a link to gotomypc.com, with instructions on how to log in and enter the test system’s access code. (It’s pretty easy, there’s not much to it.)
- The test participant will then be signed in to the GTMPC service and can control the test system…as can you, so be careful not to “wrestle” for the mouse too much.
- Run the test session.
I’m sure there’s more tricks you could be add on to this basic setup. Here’s one idea: you could record the session using the online meeting service’s recording capabilities.
And it also seems possible to get the remote test participant’s face into the picture somehow, as many online meeting services provide web cam integration. Note that this would require inviting the test participant to the online meeting as well as having them sign into the test system via GTMPC, so be careful before testing this capability. Not to be an alarmist or anything, but on the face of it I’m guessing that this could easily tear a hole in the space-time continuum and open a portal to parallel universes. Or something like that. Just sayin’.
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