Comments on: Cheap and Free Alternatives to Morae: Usability Testing Software.

By: Sniffy

Sniffy — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:36:24 +0000

OVO Studios is a hidden gem that somehow nobody knows about. Microsoft and many other big companies use it for their testing. There’s also a smaller “OVO Solo” version for $499. That’s pushing the definition of cheap but it’s as full-featured as Morae, even if their website isn’t as slick.

Like Peter, I don’t use the reporting that much, other than as a decent way to organize and pivot my notes for qualitative analysis. But the ability to tag highlight clip start/stop points on the fly–during the session–is worth the cost in my time alone. Otherwise, running through 20 hours of footage and processing the results might take 10 hours. Automating that work is a huge plus. And no proprietary formats.

By: Peter Svarre

Peter Svarre — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:48:38 +0000

I am sorry. I have to retract what I said about Camstudio. I have now conducted some more (and longer) tests and the program is super buggy and very unreliable. It crashes and creates way to big files, which causes everything to slow down – and crash eventually. I have had to restart my computer several times and have lost most of my recordings longer than 10 minutes. So conclusion is: I wouldn’t recommend Camstudio for serious usability testing!

By: Peter Svarre

Peter Svarre — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:49:15 +0000

@David Travis: Well actually I have always been a little sceptical about the quantification of qualitative testing. For me a usability test is about qualitative interpretation and not quantitative measurements – and no technology can help you do qualitative interpretation. So yes – the software for me only serves as a tool to document the test and as something I can use to go back for reference afterwards. But very often I also edit the tests and embed snippets of video in my presentations for clients. I am very well aware that no one is ever going to watch full user tests on video.

That said I must admit that Camstudio may not be as perfect as I thought. The program has made my pc crash twice now, so maybe it only works for tests shorter than 10 minutes – which is pretty close to useless…”

By: David Travis

David Travis — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:01:24 +0000

@Peter Svarre: I think this points to a real division in the way usability testing software is used by UX professionals. One camp just wants to make videos of the sessions (presumably to hand to dev teams who will never watch them). The other camp wants to do analysis on the videos (preferably in real time) so that usability issues are properly quantified. Your solution meets the first need, but not the second.

By: Peter Svarre

Peter Svarre — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:04:04 +0000

I have tested most of the products mentioned in the thread and for a cost effective (read: free) solution I would definitely recommend Camstudio if you can live with the program showing the PIP while testing.

I have been working as a UX professional for 12 years and have always been using Morae, but now as a one man company I need something slightly more affordable, and Camstudio seems to work for me.

After recording the avi file I import the file to Windows Movie Maker (also free) where I can edit and export the files.

It basically gives me the same features that I was using 99% of the time in Morae.

By: LH Marcial

LH Marcial — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 18:45:38 +0000

The free version of CamStudio actually does PIP (or now it does) and you aren’t necessarily tied to .swf (also records as .avi) but if you are doing screen capture and want the PIP, you have to show it (transparent to user which can be distracting). Does anyone know about a solution for this? Ideally, I’d stream the camera into a position in the frame (entire desktop) but not display it to the user while testing.

Thanks!

By: Cheap Mobile Usability Testing | UserZen

Cheap Mobile Usability Testing | UserZen — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 18:19:17 +0000

[...] Cheap and Free Alternatives to Morae: Usability Testing Software. Related Posts:Mobile Test StrategiesUsability of iPadA Guide to Usability Testing an iPhone AppUse Online Data in Excel 2010 SpreadsheetsPlease test your site for usability Consulting, Mobile, Research, Testing, User Centered Design, User Experience AMCap, Mobile, morae, Software, Testing, Usability, Video [...]

By: Sven

Sven — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 13:39:01 +0000

Going to give Usability Studio a try – can’t really say from the screenshots on their homepage if its a good alternative to Morae.

It’s really incredible that Techsmith is the only one that has developed such a program. We use Morae3 in our Usability Lab – but only because there isn’t an alternative.

By: Harry Brignull

Harry Brignull — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:58:47 +0000

I’ve never heard of usability-studio, so I can’t pass judgement. The trouble with using ‘unknown’ apps is that you will kick yourself if you lose the footage after a day of testing!

By: Leif Kendall

Leif Kendall — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:55:52 +0000

Thanks for your post – have you heard anything about Usability Studio? Sounds interesting: http://www.usability-studio.com/products/

By: Pen

Pen — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:56:40 +0000

A word on CamStudio – it does record avi if you change video recording settings. It records for fairly long periods though havent tried 90 minutes.

It makes pretty large files but you can always batch compress afterwards – Any Video Converter does a great job. You can record the whole screen and also record good quality audio (44hz stereo if wanted). Overall Ive found this very good.

By: Usability testing gets easier and easier – Open Education Research

Usability testing gets easier and easier – Open Education Research — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:50:08 +0000

[...] using your software. The best is Silverback, which is pretty slick but only for Mac. (For Windows, keep looking.) Because it’s recorded, you can skip over boring stuff and replay interesting stuff over [...]

By: Chris Canfield

Chris Canfield — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:08:34 +0000

I was just looking into this. Webcammax will do an unlimited number of picture-in-picture videos, and can record your desktop including focusing on the area around the mouse. And unlike a lot of software that does Picture in Picture webcams, it actually keeps them mostly in sync. Downsides include being a resource hog, unweildly large recordings (no compression), and max recording resolution of 640×480. It’s about 50$ a copy.

http://webcammax.com/

Ultimately since we’re not a PC house anyway, we went with superwebcam to join two webcam streams into one Picture-in-picture, then recording that with good old Windows Movie Maker. Superwebcam is free, (which means usable on any computer in the company!), tiny, and takes surprisingly few resources compared to other software. Huge drawback: max resolution of 320 x 240 when recorded with something else, or recording of 640×480 without sound. But overall it has produced quite adequate results without too much effort after this past batch of 20 1-hour sessions. We’re pointing a second camera at a monitor for our Picture-in-picture, but again, that’s because we’re not a PC house.

http://www.superwebcam.com

Neither work particularly amazingly, but both at least are useful in different circumstances. If you find other solid alternatives, please keep us posted!

By: Harry Brignull

Harry Brignull — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:20:16 +0000

No, I haven’t… There are a hell of a lot of screen recorder apps out there. If you are going to try it for usability testing, I recommend seeing how well it copes when recording for 90 minutes solid. You don’t want it crashing during an actual research session.

By: Gustavo Gawry

Gustavo Gawry — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:08:59 +0000

Have you ever tryed BBFlashback?

http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBackExpress/Home.aspx

http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBack/Home.aspx

By: eduStyle Blog || Blog Archive » Start a Usability Testing Program in 5 Days

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:17:20 +0000

[...] You can make the software side really easy by using Silverback (Mac only) for quick and cheap or Morae (Windows only) for comprehensive and pricier. If you’re looking for something cheaper for the PC, there are some cheap alternatives to Morae. [...]

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:05:11 +0000

> Thanks for the tip, Nick!

No problem, Harry. Thanks for the informative post and blog.

> So Windows Movie Maker can deal with resolutions like 1024 x 768?

Yes.

> Upon import does it spend ages converting the video?

Snagit saves the files as AVIs. They come straight into MovieMaker. Depending on the codec you use though, Snagit might spend a bit of time procesing the file once you’ve finished.

By: Harry Brignull

Harry Brignull — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:58:09 +0000

Thanks for the tip, Nick! So Windows Movie Maker can deal with resolutions like 1024 x 768? Upon import does it spend ages converting the video?

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:04:05 +0000

Hi Harry, in the tiny budget category could I put out a shout for TechSmith's Snagit, $49 (£28). Using it with a free codec like Xvid gives (ahem) usable results. No picture in picture, but it does do audio (not forgetting it's pretty much the best screen capture tool money can buy). And for editing the results, Windows MovieMaker comes free with most recent flavours of the OS.

By: David Travis

David Travis — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:32:03 +0000

Just a correction to your point about Morae videos. You can create a video of a session in real time (while the study is in progress) by logging in with Observer and saving the file as a .wmv. So if you just want videos of the session you don't need to import .rdg files into Manager at all. I've written an eBook with more tips like this available here.