

Silverback: Guerilla usability testing - akkartik
http://silverbackapp.com

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spicyj
Don't forget to resize the window and watch the background move!

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bk
OP, your title reads like a cheap ad. It would be more appropriate to put the
main feature/benefit in the title and stay more neutral, e.g. "Silverback is a
usability tool that let's you..."

 _edit: title has been updated since my comment_

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moe
Huh?

What is the overlay of the testers face good for without any eyetracking
capabilities?

Also there don't seem to be any facilities to correlate tests to one another,
to setup goals, perform any kind of timings, heck there isn't even a mouse
cursor heatmap.

Calling this "usability testing software" is a bit of a stretch imho.
Glorified Desktop Recorder perhaps...

PS: But the gorilla is cute!

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akkartik
[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/UsabilityTestingwithM...](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/UsabilityTestingwithMorae.html)

Perhaps you don't find it useful without more rigor; that is up to you. But it
most definitely _is_ usability testing.

Most startups never do usability testing. Or put it off too late. Focusing on
a million details is a great way to put it off further. Just put the laptop in
front of the first person walking down the hallway. The first 30 seconds will
be more invaluable than any heatmap.

 _"What is the overlay of the testers face good for without any eyetracking
capabilities?"_

It's good to detect boredom, distraction, urgency. That pause in the cursor,
was he confused? Oh, she just got distracted by somebody.

I just watched myself grow increasingly frantic as the time ran out on an
auction.

Wake up sheeple, you don't need no stinkin' eye-trackin'. Just get it in front
of somebody already.

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ThomPete
That this is usability testing unfortunately says more about usability than it
says about the usage of this.

Most startups don't do usability testing because it would be quite pointless.
There is a world of difference between a user and a customer. Usability
testing is for refinement not for innovation.

I have worked with more than a hundred startups and there absolutely no
correlation between success of the product/service and usability testing.

Usability testing pre launch is nothing but a placebo effect. In 5 years it
will be death and for very good reasons.

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limedaring
You don't find it a good thing to test before launch? Heads up - everytime you
put your app before someone else and ask what they think, you're usability
testing. What if your customer gets to your homepage, goes "huh?" and leaves
immediately - you'll be able to find those kind of issues and fix them before
your app goes public.

~~~
ThomPete
If people go huh? When they arrive to your page you probably should get a
proper designer.

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callmeed
For those interested in the topic, I highly recommend this book by Steve Krug
[http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-
Yourself/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-
Yourself/dp/0321657292/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1274667210&sr=8-1-fkmr0)

This app looks like it would work well with Krug's recommendations.

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coldclimate
We use silverback every week, and it's a joy to use. Once we've run 10 or so
test we queue up all the videos, watch them back to back, cringing every time
somebody trying to search in a tags box etc, making a list of the screw ups
and tally marking every time we see them. Painful, but amazing feedback.

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herdrick
Start the video demo at 2:25 to skip the incidental details.

EDIT: And you can stop at 3:40 to skip the other incidental details.

