Really easy usability testing with two Macs

A super-tactical guide to getting things set up


We’ve been running a Steve Krug-style usability study once a month or so. Here are the technical details of our setup:

  • The usability study participant, my laptop (with our app running), and I are sequestered in our conference room
  • The rest of our team observes from a computer in another room (connected to a projector and speakers)
  • Messages.app shares the laptop screen and audio to the other room
  • QuickTime Player (running on my laptop) records the session for later

Setting up screensharing

  • On both computers, open Messages.app, and make sure that Bonjour is enabled under Preferences:
  • From the test laptop, start a new conversation with the other computer, click the little camera icon in the top-right, and pick “Share my screen with (the other user’s name)”

Et voilà! The people in the other room can now see your screen and hear everything you say.

Importantly, you can also hear everything they say, so take this opportunity to mute your laptop speakers (or their microphone). They’ll also be able to control your screen by moving their mouse. Hopefully your team has enough self-restraint not to do that.

In our experience, you may be well-served by using an external microphone with the test laptop–some of your participants will talk quietly.

Setting up screen recording

QuickTime Player makes this super-easy.

  • Pick “New Screen Recording” from the File menu
  • Click the little triangle to select your microphone (or you won’t get audio)
  • Select “Show Mouse Clicks In Recording” (this draws a little circle around the mouse when the user clicks–super-useful for later review)
  • Hit record — when you’re done, hit stop (in Mac OS 10.9, this is a little icon in your system tray), and save the video somewhere

Wrapping up

You’re all set! (Definitely test the recording step, though.)

Getting our remote employees in on this usability study is significantly jankier–today, we have the second computer (the one with the projector) do a Google Hangout screenshare with the remote employees. It’s not ideal, but it gets the job done.

Have some other tips, tricks, or suggestions for something that works cross-platform? Share ’em here!