Jot Thought

One of the easiest ways to get feedback on your web application is to use screensharing technology to watch folks attempt to use your site. Many of the top web conferencing applications can be used for this purpose, and they usually offer free trial accounts. You set up a time for your session and get a meeting ID and a conference number. The user will need to go to the site, enter the meeting id number, download a small applet (usually java) and then have “presenter” status moved to them. From that point on, you can see your subjects using your site while talking to them. It’s particularly useful for larger teams, as multiple people can join in the “meeting” from anyplace with an internet connection. Basically, there’s no reason the entire development team can’t sit and watch from their machines.

Until recently, my favorite was GotoMeeting from Citrix. It was much simpler to use than WebEx or even worse, Gatherplace.net. However, we just uncovered a serious limitation while doing some usability with one of our clients. Gotomeeting doesn’t allow Macs to act as hosts - meaning a user with a Mac can’t share his or her desktop with the team. This renders the tool useless for this kind of research.

Fortunately, we gave Adobe’s Acrobat Connect a try and not only did it work flawlessly, but it was even easier to use than Citrix and it uses a Flash plugin rather than a java applet. They offer a 14-day trial, which should be plenty of time to run a study and determine if it works for your purposes.

In case anyone from the above companies happen to see this, I think the entire market is missing an opportunity to repackage these online meeting solutions for research purposes. It’s a classic case where a technology designed to solve one problem ends up being very useful in solving another problem. Call it a great “unintended” use! Either way, it would be great to see one or all of these providers offer a simpler solution with a more cost-effective pricing model for this type of service.