Screen Recording Software for Usability Testing

For usability testing on an application, a system or a Website, users are trying to finish the assigned task on computer. It is an important part to recording what users do on screen and publishing the process as videos for analysis. The content of videos can include screen activity such as mouse movement and click, page scroll and keystroke.

A video of these mouse movements, keystrokes, and other activities is most helpful for usability testing. Without good observational skills, it is difficult to remember what happened in the test. A video of screen recording not only helps you recall what happened on the screen, it provides more details to analyze and compare the processes between individuals.

There are various Windows screen recorder available. Most of them are free to try before buy and some of them with simple recording feature are even free. You can choose the one fits your need.

Screen recording software will slows down your computer performance more or less, but it is the best way to do the recording of the desktop compared to camcorder or VCR (Video Cassette Recorder). Besides, now hardware requirements are no longer the hurdle as they used to be.

The following requirements of screen recording software can satisfy most usability testing situations:

Optimize recording settings.

Recording at lower frame rate and lower resolution(like 800×600) in lower color depth(16-bit color)has no obvious impact on system performance. If you can disable your hardware acceleration, you can get better result.

Unobtrusive recording.

Most of the tools will not completely disappear while recording, but they all reduce to a small icon in the toolbar. And now a few screen recorders enable users to hide the system tray icon. So users will not be distracted or feel anxiety by being reminded of recording.

Instant playback.

In this technique usability test, users are doing the assigned task and their screen activities are in recording. When the task is completely they are shown the video and asked to conduct a think aloud. It’s best to watch the video right after the test to minimize forgetting.

Pause, Fast Forward, and Rewind.

Some common video formats are nice because they can be played with video player. Some of the tools use a special video format with special player should have a pause feature and preferably fast-forward and rewind.
Here were a few other features for usability testing but they are not critical.

Record Sound.

If the usability testing is concern with audio, it will be better to get a screen recording application with sound recording feature to do the recording. And now more and more applications supports sound recording from multiple sources such as Microphone, Rear Input, and Stereo Mix. And it can be used to record the interview dialogue after session with participants.

Editing feature.

This enables users to edit callouts to illustrate some special procedures in the recorded video after the test. Some notes can be added according to the after test interview.

Hotkeys.

To minimize futzing in testing sessions, hotkeys for important commands like Record, Pause, Play, and Stop is a useful feature.
Screen recording softwareDemoCreator is mainly designed for creating software tutorials and system demos. However, it can be a useful tool for usability testing. And now more and more requirements of usability test are considered in the design of screen recording software.
Note:

People may think there is one limitation to the software approach - it only records what happens on the screen but users themselves. If you want to learn something from the body language and physical movements of the user then you still need a camcorder. Now the good news is some screen recorders also support the webcam recording and picture-in-picture video. They can record the video of your webcam while recording screen activity.

Screen Recording in Computer Teaching and Training

In the production of multi-media courseware presentation, we often need to capture the computer screen actions of operating the application, such as tracking the movement of the mouse and the keystrokes from the keyboard, and so on. That is to make a multimedia animation presentation document from your onscreen activity. And they can be used for software training and self-learning. The research shows that screen recording applied to teaching and training receives a good result.

Multi-media technology like screen recording can be used to create virtualized scenarios combined with driven tasks for breakthroughs of the keys and difficulties in teaching. Students can view the screen recording documents online or on their computer screen. They explore independently, and exchanges opinions mutually. They work as partners to complete learning tasks, while teachers guide and support them in a timely and professional manner.

Let’s say that the teacher is having the course of how to make a good PowerPoint presentation. He shows the students the operating steps and tips with screen recording courseware and then arranges the task.

He prepares a detailed demonstration of software video tutorial recorded from computer screen (Flash video files recorded by DemoCreator). Via multi-media teaching system and network, the software video tutorials can be posted to the learning management website and the desktop machines of students. And students can watch the tutorial and operate the application at the same time, and communicate with teacher and exchange opinions with other students readily. So the teacher has enough time to understand the learning process of more students, and guides them to learn better. For some unexpected operational problems, teachers can produce tutorials and send to students to support their learning online.

There are many benefits of screen recording on computer teaching and training:

1. Fully reflect the subjectivity of students, and drive the entire class to complete the task and explore more.

2. With the video tutorials recorded from screen, it breaks restriction of time and space in learning. Usually, students listen to the teacher in the class, and then go to practice. If they don’t focus their minds, some operations or main points may be unable to grasp. And it is not practical for teachers do repeat the course. Screen recording provides a convenient way to help students to learn and explore, no matter in classes or in extra-curricular.

3. All levels of students are taken in consideration. There are some differences of learning progress among Students. It is more conducive for different levels of students if there are detailed video tutorials. Students who master fast and do some deep exploring while students who master slowly can spend more time and opportunity to consolidate their learning.

4. A big help for teachers. There will be more time for teachers to manage and guide students in computer course learning. And there will be more time for Students to collaborate with peers, and more opportunities for exchanges opinions with their teachers.

5. Screen recording documents can be done by both extra-curricular and in class. The screen recording documents need to be prepared before such computer courses. If necessary, teachers can install the screen recording software to help students deal with some unexpected problems in class. On-site recording and distributing is a necessary complement for pre-class preparation improvement.

6. In favor of post-production and application. The screen recording documents used in class can be improved in accordance with the learning performance of students because of the post-editing and publishing features of screen recorder like DemoCreator. So that teachers can make better screen recording documents, and they can be used for other classes or for the next year.

There is a sample video tutorial to show you how to add audio file to PowerPoint: