Guide to Low-cost Usability Tools
As someone who works with start-ups and SMBs, finding low-cost, high-impact tools is an absolute necessity. Fortunately, the usability world has been blessed by dozens of new tools over the last couple of years. While many excellent blog posts have been written about these tools, I decided that it was time to take a deeper dive. Most importantly, I wanted to test these tools on User Effect and try to provide real data and screenshots.In the end, I decided that a blog post just wasn't going to cut it this time around, and so my second e-book was born. I'm happy to announce that I'm making that e-book available for free as of today. It's a guide to 20 online usability tools, all of which have free or low-cost versions.
What You'll Find Inside
The e-book is 48 pages, with 40 of those pages dedicated to the tools themselves. The tools are broken up into 4 sections: (1) Heat Mapping, (2) Screen Recording, (3) User Testing, and (4) User Feedback. Each tool has a nearly identical, 2-page spread that looks something like this:
Download The E-book
The e-book is absolutely free, and you can download it using the button below. It's in PDF format, and is about 1.5MB. If you plan on printing the document and don't want to waste all of your blue ink, here's a printer-friendly version.
48-page PDF (1.5MB)
Complete List of Tools
If you're just not an e-book sort of person or you're cursed with a slow internet connection, never fear - here's a list of all 20 tools (in alphabetical order) with links to where you can find them:- 4Q by iPerceptions
- AttentionWizard
- Chalkmark
- ClickDensity
- ClickTale
- Clixpy
- Crazy Egg
- Feedback Army
- Feng-GUI
- Fivesecondtest
- Get Satisfaction
- Kampyle
- Loop11
- OpenHallway
- Skribit
- Usabilla
- Userfly*
- UserTesting.com*
- UserVoice
- UserVue
Even More Usability Tools
As I mentioned, there have also been some excellent blog posts covering this and similar tools. Here are just a few of my favorites, for your reading pleasure:- 69 Free (or low cost) Tools to Improve Your Website
- My big list of 24 Web Site Usability Testing Tools
- Top 29 Free UX Tools and Extensions
- 10 Tools to Improve Your Site's Usability on a Low Budget
I hope you enjoy the e-book and all of these resources. As always, comments, criticisms, and crazed fans are welcome.
* Full disclosure: User Effect is a partner of UserTesting.com and an affiliate of Userfly.
The Inevitable Apology Post
It's that time of year again - no, not that time when the clocks change and Halloween candy makes way for Christmas decorations in the store - that time when I make the inevitable blogger apology for mysteriously disappearing. Business has been good for User Effect, and we managed to come out of the recession with a bang in Q3. So, first off, I'd like to thank everyone who has made that possible.Second, many of you may know that I'm active in the search marketing community. One of the things that pulled me away from the User Effect blog recently is a more active role guest-blogging for SEOmoz. If you're interested, here are some recent posts.
- 7 Tips for Surviving PubCon
- SEO Cheat Sheet: Anatomy of A URL
- Architecture for Commerce with Dr. Pete
Third, as one of the blog titles suggests, I will be attending Pubcon Las Vegas next week. If you'll be there, let me know, and don't be shy about saying "hi". If you have no idea what I look like, that last link above is a video mini-interview of me with SEOmoz's CEO, Rand Fishkin.
Finally, I haven't forgotten about my own blog. I've been working on a resource that started as a long blog post and has evolved into my next e-book. Look for an announcement on that in the next few weeks.
Stop Losing Your Best Ideas
As a psychologist, blogger, and occasional designer, I'm obsessed with the concept of creativity, especially how to capture the muse when she finally shows up to the party (usually, fashionably late). I won't claim to be an expert, but over the years I've learned a few (let's call it 5) tricks to keep myself from losing my best ideas:1. Write It Down
You can't control when your best ideas will strike, and if you think you'll remember them later, you're going to be sorely disappointed. When a good idea hits you, do whatever it takes to record it, whether it's good old-fashioned pen and paper, a digital document, or a voice recording. If you tend to have good ideas in inconvenient places, like the car or the shower, be prepared. I often run out of the shower in a towel just to jot something in a Word document - my wife thinks I'm crazy, but at least I grab that towel first.2. Know Your Cycles
I have a confession: I am not a 9-5 kind of guy. I used to worry about this obsessively when I first started working, but eventually I came to terms with the truth - I am inhumanly productive for about 2-4 hours/day, and the rest of the day I just have to let my brain relax and do its thing. I'm just wired that way. Once I accepted that, I learned to use my 2-4 hours well, and not stress about the rest of the day. Pay attention to when your creative energy is at its peak and learn to take advantage of it.3. Don't Force It
Of course, there's a flip side to understanding your creative cycle - when you're in the down phase, don't try to force out good ideas. We're all under time pressure sometimes, but forcing yourself to be creative is only going to end in frustration and bad ideas. If you're someone who needs to be creative regularly (like a writer), it's ok to schedule time every day, but be realistic about what you can get out of that time. Discipline is a good thing, but rigidly trying to control your mental peaks and valleys will only lead to sorrow.4. Stalk Your Muse
Sometimes inspiration strikes again and again in the same place or situation. For me, it's the elliptical machine, the shower and during incredibly boring talks at conferences. When you notice your muse has an M.O., take advantage of it. Plan to put that time to use for quality thinking and be prepared to capture your ideas. I once read about a Japanese inventor who loved to swim and created a waterproof notepad. As for me, I'm still working on that dry erase shower stall.5. Put Down The Mouse
Mice are for closers only. We're used to capturing our thoughts a certain way, usually by mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately, this creates two problems: (1) we're bombarded with distractions while sitting at the computer, and (2) that sitting-at-the-PC context traps us in a certain frame of mind. Put the mouse down, grab a notepad and go outside, or pick up your laptop and head to the nearest coffee shop. We all need a change of scenery once in a while.The Ultimate Idea
Finally, I have to tell a story that adds nothing to the usefulness of this post but is the inspiration for the photo. Back in college, I was doing some dream research at Stanford - they had me using all kinds of gadgets to record my sleep patterns, which gave me the unique opportunity to capture my late-night ideas. You know the ones I'm talking about - the 4am idea that would change the world as you know it but that you instantly forget when you wake up.One night, I had just such an epiphany. It would feed the hungry, put hair on the bald, and end the browser wars. The next morning, I awoke like a rich, suburban kid on Christmas morning to discover that I had written the following:
Cheese log castles
Needless to say, I'm still working on how to monetize that one.
Simple Optical Illusion CAPTCHA
Regular readers know that I have a bit of an obsession with CAPTCHA (and all things spam-related). Every now and then, I get an idea stuck in my head for a way to improve CAPTCHA to make it more people-friendly. This is one of those posts.One of the core questions in creating a good CAPTCHA is essentially this: What capabilities do people have that machines don't? For example, can we take advantage of the human visual system somehow to make a task that's easy for people but tough for bots? Consider the sample CAPTCHA image below:
Looks like your average, everyday low-security CAPTCHA, right? To a person, yes, but looks can be deceiving. What you see above is actually two partially-transparent images laid on top of each other (with CSS). Separated, the two images actually look like this:
Interpreting the first image is easy for us humans - we don't even have to think about it. The two images merge seamlessly into one. For a bot, though, the source code clearly shows two full-sized images, neither of which contains a legible word. Of course, there are ways to programmatically combine the images, but for your average bot, who doesn't notice the dual-image trap, the task is effectively impossible.
As with all of my CAPTCHA experiments, the goal is to help make existing word-based CAPTCHA slightly more difficult for bots, without increasing the difficulty for humans. Of course, I welcome any feedback, and thank you for once again indulging my CAPTCHA obsession.
Usability Contest Winners!
First things first - I just want to thank everyone who entered the usability library contest. This is the part where I tell you I wish you all could be winners, but you can't, because then I'd be broke :) In all seriousness, though, it was great to hear your stories and see such a wide variety of people interested in learning more about usability. I take that as a good sign for the industry.There was apparently a little bit of confusion about the rules, with some people writing blog posts and some commenting on the original post, so I've opted to pick two winners: (1) A full library winner from the blog posts, and (2) A 1-book runner-up from the comments.
Without further ado, I'd like to announce the full library winner: Pek Pongpaet for his post The Importance of Usability. Here's an excerpt from the post:
"If only the user would do this." "The user is doing it wrong." "Why can't they just see the button." "It's right in front of them." These are the excuses we make to ourselves when first presented with the evidence that our product might not be all that user friendly. We write it off as the user's fault.
Congratulations, Pek - you've got a lot of reading to catch up on :)
Our runner-up award goes to the comment from Kevin Ushko. As a small business owner, I really related to his story of trying to start over and educate his team after losing his UX job a few years ago. Congratulations, Kevin!
There were some great, personal stories in the comments, and I hate to have to pick just two winners, but I wish everyone the best and hope you'll consider reading some of what's on the list as you have the chance. Thanks again to everyone who entered.
Dr. Peter J. Meyers (AKA "Dr. Pete") is the President of User Effect, a former start-up executive, cognitive psychologist, usability evangelist and lifelong programmer.