In preparation for a closed alpha release of our neuromarketing research web application, we ran a remote usability test with 25 participants in an attempt to catch some of the hidden “error gems” we may have missed during initial in-house validation tests.

Testing a prosumer product can be hard 😖. Especially when you need to find the right audience for the test. We got incredibly lucky with our participants — a university professor in France teaching Marketing Research to first-year students reached out to us willing to provide a class of 25 who can take the test for us.

Problems:

• Setting up a testing environment on a bunch of college machines with locked down user privileges and hoping that video capture and necessary plugins would simply work was an unsettling thought. …

After four 4 years of working around the clock, I decided to take a break and do a little bit of traveling. Australia’s east coast was my first destination. Keeping a close eye on my budget for the first month, I noticed that food & accommodation, were responsible for more than 60% of my monthly spending. I figured doing some wwoofing(working for food and accommodation) would be a great way to enjoy the place without spending too much money.

With the lack of design related positions in Australia’s woofing industry, I was really hoping to get closer to wildlife and maybe land a position at a koala sanctuary, but instead we ended up going to a boutique resort on an private island in Whitsunday region. Wi-fi was present, accommodation & food were superb, the views were stunning and apart from washing dishes and making beds every couple of days, there was very little work to do as such. …