Mobile Usability Lab that fits in a small box
Usability Testing within an Activity-based Workplace
ice is a new and upcoming cellular provider that’s set forth to challenge the telecom-duopoly in the Norwegian market through higher efficiency and better quality-of-service by utilizing no-legacy technology, digital customer journeys and with an extreme focus on customers, that’s articulated in a goal of “becoming Norway’s most recommended company”
What is Activity-based Working?
Ice absorbed Activity-based working (ABW) as a way of working in 2017 when moving into new office spaces at Nydalen in Oslo. The office space was designed with the philosophy of “Water Circles”; concentric circles from noisy social areas in the heart of the office to strictly silent zones around the edges.
How do you set up a test lab where there is no such thing as a permanent set-up?
So how can we make sure that all the stakeholders are able to observe the usability testing within their own time schedule and keep the momentum going? What if there is no observation room available, or the meeting rooms are booked in a way that you are not able to have the same set-up for the entire day?
The solution is simpler than you think! (Getting started)
As a newcomer to ice and the work culture, one of my first tasks was to set up a usability lab. I collaborated with the other UX designers at ice, and sounded out what they could recommend equipment wise. Just to make sure I didn’t have any equipment biases. I was also watching the culture, the way the communication stream was set up, and just how everyone was extremely busy every day.
Streaming
There is no way around it. A no-brainer, really. And the tool was just there in front of me. Workplace — the Facebook at-work offering. Everyone had access, and the stream is automatically stored if you miss the live stream. The only minor negative with streaming through Workplace is the slight delay in the live stream.
Also protecting the recorded material in the summary phase of the usability testing was easy to manage with restricted observation groups. Having a set time for the captured material to be available before deleting the recorded stream.
Managing the streaming with OBS studio
OBS studio is a tool I had never used, but which kept popping up during my research. I wanted to give it a try, and it turned out to be quite the tool! Free to use for Mac, Windows and Linux. You can store different set-ups allowing you to switch testing between desktop, mobile or whatever your chosen device is within the session. It’s just a blessed set-up.
Capturing the usability testing
First of all we need to test on mobile, being a mobile operator and all, and as we work with a mobile first approach. Secondly, we wanted flexibility in regards to serving the user, and making sure that she would be able to complete the tasks she wanted to complete on a desktop computer if that is what she wanted to do. So that meant several devices in play to serve our needs.
Capturing the mobile screen
Mr. Tappy was one of the first devices for testing on mobile that came up in the UX stream of conciseness for usability testing. We sought out other solutions as well, but that’s where we ended up. It works quite well, even though the focus is not perfect. But the point is to capture the interaction itself and we can back it up by screen capture as well.
Capturing the user
Huddly IQ was another device we chose for capturing facial expressions of the user and the interaction with the test lead. A quite small camera working wide lens to capture the room and interactions. It enabled us to see the user but also the interaction with the test-lead.
Tying these two devices in with screen capture and PC-camera, we had a wide range of available angles to wrap up and record the usability testing.
What about sound capture?
The beauty with Mr. Tappy and the Huddly IQ through OBS studio is that both have internal mics, and can be changed during the session as well. Each room is different, and each user is different, so to be able to optimize the sound through different sources is just top notch.
Communicating with the observation room
Slack is king. It allows us to keep in touch when needed, and get answers to questions that might arise during the process, in case the usability testing crew are not able to answer them.
This channel is also good for popping in follow-up questions to the conversation happening with the user, whether you are located in the observation room or are elsewhere following the live stream.
What did we learn?
Key take-aways from the first test
With some tuning and minor trial and error, we sat out to do our first proper usability test with this new setup. Ice had just recently launched a freemium-type subscription for kids, and wanted to test the order process and the self-service handling on the parents. We were able to easily swap between mobile and desktop, but had some issues with the desktop version since we used the same laptop for capturing the test and doing the usability testing. Not ideal.
We also registered that some users would rather use the desktop than the mobile when having the choice. In hindsight we needed to be more strict and true to the mobile first strategy.
Having a test-lead to do all the interaction with the user, and a second person in the room to observe, take notes and do all the tech tasks and interaction with the observation room, is very important in test phase of the lab. It allows the Researcher to focus on the user only.
Overall take-aways from our set-up
So what are our recommendations to you if you are in a similar situation and are looking into setting up a usability lab?
OBS studio as a base for capturing video and audio is an absolute winner. This set-up gives you loads of alternatives for both what kind of sources you want to capture, but also for where you want to take your stream. Did I mention that you can both stream and record at the same time? And that it’s free?
Secondly — think economy. You don’t need an expensive camera to catch the user. The Huddly IQ is a great camera, but also expensive. You could probably save lots on you usability lab budget by trying out a much cheeper solution.
For capturing the interaction with the mobile screen, there are other solutions than Mr. Tappy out there, but we found it to be a reasonably priced solution for our needs. As I mentioned the focus isn’t perfect, but you would want to back it up with screen capture anyway. And if you’re really handy you could actually make your own!
Having several devices you can swap around for capturing the audio is also a great addition to a flexible set-up. Make sure your chosen video capture devices are able to capture audio as well. Alternatively you could buy a separate audio capture device to place and adjust around the room.
Last but not least, the equipment is really easy to set up and get ready for usability testing within minutes. It has proved to be really easy to just grab the lab gear and run over to the next booked meeting room, where we’re up and running in no time.
And when you really know the lab equipment after several tests — you could actually run the usability testing by yourself! We have done that with great success even though it is a bit more stressful caring for both the user AND the set-up. In a high tempo environment where everyone is caught up in tasks, this is a very handy alternative.
…and it all fits in a small box!
Our mobile usability lab is really easy to store in our small lockers. Just get your hands on a little tool box and you are all set.
Good luck :)
