Affordable user testing just got a lot closer
Designed to work on Apple laptops with their built in i-Sight cameras. Silverback is an application designed to bring user testing into the hands of the masses.
Silverback will give even the smallest studio an informed understanding of user experience - .NET magazine
Your camera records the user while their desktop experience is simultaneously captured, along with a visual feedback system which highlights where clicks occur. The two videos are then outputted, picture to picture in quicktime.
At just $49 this will allow even the smallest of studios to gain valuable insight into people's behaviour whilst using their websites.
.Net magazine scored the beta version at 4/5 which is pretty good for a product which costs all of £25.
For me the only drawback is that you I just have to shell out £699 to buy myself a mac to get it working on. Maybe they will create a Windows version too at some point.
So what are you waiting for?
Grab some people of the street, give it to your mum or dad, or maybe actually pay the right demographic of people to participate in a common transaction and you could have some invaluable insights into how they interact with your website, and where their difficulties lie in achieving their goals.
Speculation on the future
I was thinking how great it would be to have an app like this online, so that you could get users the world over to do your testing for you. I know Flash can (with permission) take images from a persons webcam and microphone - I wonder how far away we are from a solution like that
Silverback is available from tomorrow and was developed by the lovely people at ClearLeft and I would liem to personally thank them for making it so affordable and therefore accessible.
Power to the people!