The EchoUser Experience

I’m currently working on a usability and design prototyping project for a San Francisco-based iPhone app company (that shall, for now, remain unnamed).  So far it’s been fascinating, and lots of fun figuring out new ways to test the app, record the sessions, and integrate rapid design prototypes from week to week.

One of the more interesting parts of the project revolves around a diary study activity: we’re basically following half a dozen app users over a month to see how their experience with the app evolves, for better or worse.  I’m currently sending out 2 mini surveys a week, and have a shared “whiteboard” google doc where they can jot down any thoughts they have on the fly.

Experience Blogging

The neatest trick to the diary study, in my opinion, is the inclusion of what I’m calling “experience” blogging: basically, I’ve encouraged the participants to send screenshots of interesting moments they encounter while using the app by using the iPhone’s built in screen capture function (”On/Off” and “Main menu” simultaneous click).  I set up a dedicated photoblog on Posterous.com, and the participants basically send along their screenshots - which are automatically populated on the Posterous site.  The end result is a very neat live stream of app moments, sort of like the “pulse” of the app.

It seems like the native screen capture functionality of the iPhone makes this particularly easy, though I don’t know if any other phones do the same.

Has anyone else tried anything like this before?

I’m running a stealth usability study for an iPhone app at the moment, and we’re on a tight 4 week RITE (Rapid Iterative Test and Evaluation) schedule.

For those not in the know, RITE is a way of condensing the usability and design prototyping process into a short time frame.  Instead of testing a dozen users in one big batch, writing a report with design recommendations, submitting the report, making some of the design changes (or not), and then starting the testing all over again, RITE lets us do the same thing in about a month. We test 4 users every week instead of 12 once a month; we make design changes on the fly instead of waiting for a report to be produced; we get all the stakeholders involved so things can happen today and tomorrow, instead of next week or next month.  In many ways, RITE is the way that usability - and design more generally - should always be done (in my opinion).

One of the problems with RITE, however (and there are a few, believe you me) is that recruiting users becomes a pressure-filled activity. Instead of having weeks to schedule participants, fill in missing slots, etc., we have days to schedule people, sometimes only one day.  For example, I scheduled 2 users yesterday for a session today - pretty nuts if you ask me.

But this entry isn’t so much about RITE, or how to test an iPhone app, or why an external USB camera doesn’t play nice with live streaming and a screencast - I’ll get to all these issues in good time. No, this time I want to focus on a particular user (who shall not be named for obvious reasons), and how persistent she was today.  If any of you live in the Bay Area you’ve probably heard that the Bay Bridge is closed, which is wreaking havoc on…well, just about everything.  And this poor user-who-shall-not-be-named made a valiant effort today to get across said closed bridge, only to spend another hour and a half trying to get into town from the East Bay.  She finally gave up when she realized that making the session would mean leaving her daughter stranded at school without a ride.

So to every user who has ever spent an inordinate amount of time getting to a session, all in the name of a better product, I salute you.