Re: [Usability] Cheap Open Source Morae Alternative

[Allan Caeg <allancaeg gmail com>]

Hi all,

I suggested different tabs because showing all features at once could create clutter.

The record tab is where everything is configured before the researcher and participant start the session. What the observe tab does is to show what's happening in the remote desktop and maybe the webcam feed. The view tab will play the record(s) back. The analyze tab will show statistics. The present will show the findings in a presentation-friendly format.

Here's my new suggestion:
Record http://i.imagehost.org/0394/record.png
Observe http://i.imagehost.org/view/0534/record
View http://i.imagehost.org/0323/view.png

Can someone s

On Thursday, 17 December, 2009 05:35 PM, James Moschou wrote:

Hello,

I'm not sure tabs on a non document-based app is a good idea just
because that's how Morae does it.

Here's mine:
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/1713/laby.png

The way I see it, the tester opens the app and is presented with live
previews of each feed, so they can position the webcam etc.
They press record and maybe press pause.
When they press stop the record button changes to a play button.
because once the recording is finished, that's it there's nothing more
to do. Which is why I think having "record" and "observe" as two
separate tabs is redundant. To record another session, then they could
go "File > Save Session", "File > New Session"

I'm not sure what the difference between Observe, View and Present
are. Also I'm not sure what would happen in Analyse but if it's
detailed I don't see why it can't go in a separate window, or even the
sidebar if it's brief.

To me having thumbnails in the timeline is a good idea if you're
splicing together clips from lots of different sources, so you can see
what's what. But here there's just one source, and they're all going
to look pretty similar, except for the position of the cursor most of
the time.

I also think having preset configurations is overkill, but I haven't
really thought about all the other cases like mobile devices etc.


Well feel free to tear mine to shreds.


- James





2009/12/16 Allan caeg <allancaeg gmail com>:
  

Here's a newer version :)

On Wednesday, 16 December, 2009 01:16 PM, Máirín Duffy wrote:
    

Allan caeg wrote:
      

On Wednesday, 16 December, 2009 11:02 AM, Kirk Bridger wrote:
        

I believe you've touched on the first to-do, and I don't agree that it
is mockups.
          

Exactly. I was having a hard time coming up with mockups, because I
didn't know what features to include in the first place.
        

When working on something remotely like this, sometimes I like starting
with some exploratory mockups first to tease out what kinds of features
might be needed (people tend to get excited when they see them and call out
suggestions :) ) Then you can go back and figuring out which are really
needed, yadda.

Whatever process works is fine, though, of course! As long as we get
somewhere!! I'm sorry for forcing my notion of the way to go - I was just
trying to make sure things didn't die :)
      

First we need to know what the tasks are going to be in the application.
 You've listed:

- check audio is working
- check video is working
- check video runtime (current length)
- start, pause, and stop recording video (and associated audio I assume)
- replay video with audio
- mark timestamps in video
          

Well they don't have to be overlayed on the video - just bookmarked, using
CMML. Then when you analyze you can click on the bookmarks to jump the
playhead to where you want to go... ?

      

- add notes to specific timestamps in video
- stitch videos together
          

Are we assuming just one video stream?

Also we need screen capture as well! So we could do the video of the
screen on the left, the video of the user on the right, record them into one
video and letterbox it so it has a standard aspect ratio?

So then there should be an option maybe, screen capture only, or screen
capture AND user on the webcam right? Is there ever a reason to record just
the user on the webcam? I don't think so - but - you might want to aim the
webcam at a mobile device and record only that. So the options are:

- screencast only
- webcam only
- screencast + webcam

We are also assuming write videos to disk right? Is there any possibility
to stream them so folks can watch remotely? (I don't know. It should be
possible technically.)

      

That's correct. This is a good starting point. Other than those features,
it would be nice to have presets for different purposes like FGDs,
software/website, mobile device (captured by webcam), etc.
        

What is FGDs?
      

I suggest having four tabs in the app. Those are record, view (or
playback), analyze, and present. I got that idea from the Morae apps.
        

This is just summarizing your points.  I think we should come up with a
good starting list (maybe a little more than this) before we start mocking
things up.  Or we can start mocking up these tasks and build from there..
          

Either approach works!

Do you have any interesting / inspiration screenshots to show from Morae?
      

Should we move this to a dedicated mailing list rather than crowd the
usability ML?

          

Maybe. I just don't know how to set that up. Who can help here?
        

Let's wait until we have something.
      

Btw, I refer to thewidgetfactory for available gtk+ widgets. Is there a
better reference?
        

There's also gtk-demo....

~m
      

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