Hi Kevin, We did a lot of remote usability testing while I was at Microsoft since our customer councils were spread out across the globe. Being able to record and annotate the recording is really critical... MS had a custom tool, but I'd look to the tools that others have recommended for some good ideas.
Beyond that I think there are some procedural questions that you might want to consider. Since you aren't going to be there to work with the participants face-to-face, I recommend arranging a 10-15 minute phone call before conducting any testing to introduce yourself and just talk about the process. This was helpful for laying the ground work and getting the user used to talking to you on the phone, in the same way practicing a think aloud in person helps the user adjust to that process. Since you're doing this remotely, you have the benefit of users using the software to do their own tasks, as opposed to tasks that you have created (assuming your users are already using the software). In this case, you might consider a diary study, where users take notes on their use of the software for 2 weeks - jotting down how they used the system, making special notes of any high or low points. You can then use the diary for a guided retrospective during your actual interview, and cast a wider net in terms of issues that you find. There are certainly tradeoffs between a diary study and a traditional one-shot usability study, but I was fairly successful in finding a fair few critical issues with a remote diary study. Good luck! -Sam ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
