Usability Testing Set Back

Hey guys,

I spent over 2 hours last night doing one of my testings and it's now gone... All gone for no good reason :( Plus that testee is now on a flight to Singpore so I need to find a new person to test.... Not so easy when it's a week of holidays here and most people are going away plus I don't live in an English speaking country... sigh..

If you can avoid it I suggest not using Snapz Pro.. I wrote to their helpdesk after a horrible turn of events, but no joy..

Be careful!!!

P

=============

Hello Peta,
Sorry for your frustration. Unfortunately it looks like that file is gone. As the files are unlinked to the system, any temp file created is inaccessible.

This should be a very rare occurrence. But if any changes are made to the codecs available to QuickTime, either through upgrading QuickTime, or installing third party software that includes codecs, QuickTime may need to be explicitly told which codec to use to save out the movie.

1. Invoke Snapz and press command-Q to quit Snapz. If you can not invoke Snapz, open the Activity Monitor found in your Utilities folder. Look for a process named "Snapz Pro X", select it, and then select "Quit Process".
2. Remove the Snapz preference file "com.ambrosiasw.snapz.plist", which is located in the Home/Library/Preferences folder
3. Reboot your machine
4. Invoke SnapzProX 2 and record a short movie file. When you get to the Save Movie dialog, click on the Settings button next to the video track. Change the compression codec selected to any of the others available. Click on OK, and then click on Save.
5. After this is done, you should be able to use any of the codecs.

There is a bug in Apple's H.264 codec as well. If you choose this codec, do not use keyframes! Please let us know if you have further problems.

Best regards,
Evan Smith
- - - - -
Please include text from previous emails in your reply.
Misplaced your License, or need an updated License Code? Go to: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/lostcodes/
- - - - -
Evan Smith / Sultan of Service / Ambrosia Software, Inc. -- http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/


On Apr 26, 2007, at 12:26 PM, Peta wrote:

Hello,

I used Snapz Pro to record a very important file... It went through the whole 30 minute plus action of saving the file, but when I went to find the file it was gone. How can I find the file? I know it is on my mac somewhere... I have tried all the ways to search for it, but it is not showing.

Is there some kind of temp file section on mac??

Please help!!!!!

Thanks,

Peta

Toy Camera Clarification

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_camera

Thankfully LC-A does fall under the term 'toy camera'... The camera I am now getting interested in!!!

Tag Line Saga

I've been thinking over the past few days that maybe I am limiting my market after all by making the title and the tag line 'Holga Specific'. The past 2 weeks I've really started to become interested in yet another type of 'Toy camera' called the LC-A. It is a russian camera and still falls under the banner of 'toy camera'. The Lomographic Society have got the tag of 'shoot from the hip' and their well known header of 'Lomography', but to somebody who doesn't know what the cameras such as 'lomo, holga, LC-A' stand for it is basically useless..

I will therefore take everyone's advice on board and call my site:

Toy Camera
A beginner's to toy camera photography

In doing so I can start off with a Beginner's guide to Holga and then if I do eventually get interested in the LC-A camera I can easily expand the site. If I limit myself to 'Holga only' now then I risk limiting myself in the future!!

I'll post on the board now and see what everyone thinks...

Below are some previous discussions I've had regarding a tag line for my site.

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Message no. 1283
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007 11:38am
Hi guys,

After reading about the importance of a catchy title and tag line in the
text I've had a little brain storming session with my co-worker and come
up with a few potential names for my Holga for beginners site. Some of
the names are lame, but bear with me.

Potential Titles
Holga Home
Hello Holga
Hola Holga
Holga me close
Holga-ism

Potential tag lines
Holga... a beginner's guide to
Jargon free Holga guide
A place for Holga basics
Learn about Holga here
Learn Holga. Live Holga.

Do you think any of these names are memorable? If so which one(s).

Does anyone have something better they could share with me?

Thanks!

Peta


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Message no. 1287
Author: Meryl Thomas
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007 2:59pm
Hi Peta,

From the Potential Titles list I liked Holga Home & Hello Holga equally

for the tag lines my favourite was: Learn Holga. Live Holga.

cheers,
Meryl


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Message no. 1290
Author: Lin Campbell
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007 3:12pm
Sounds good Peta...

Like Meryl's suggestions..

Except maybe the Learn Holga. Live Holga tag line's a tad cliche (?) -
Purely my thoughts ofcourse!

Cheers.

Lin.



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Message no. 1293
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007 3:16pm
Hi Lin,

Thanks buddy.. If you think of something else please don't be shy :) I'm
kind of stumped..

I need the tag line to be descriptive, but succinct... hmmm...

Cheers,

P




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Message no. 1292
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007 3:15pm
Hello Meryl,

Thank you very much :)

I think those are my favs as well...

I think maybe "Hello Holga" is good because hello is a greeting and can
imply a first meeting maybe so good for beginners... Or am I stretching
it too far here?

If a better title or tag line springs to mind please let me know!!

Ta,

P

P.s - I took my Holga out for a walk this morning on the way to work as
the sun was shining and flowers blooming.. I'm going to cross process
this role - I'll let you know how they turn out! If they are any good
I'll post them.


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Message no. 1307
Author: Meryl Thomas
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 7:11am
Hi Peta,

Yes I liked Hello Holga too and I 'got' the notion that the hello was
for a new user.. add it to my list if you want to and if a tag comes to
mind i'll post it.

I sort of prefer self explanatory tags like...

Hello Holga ! ... a beginners guide for Holga
photography


that would work for me :)

cheers,
Meryl


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Message no. 1310
Author: Meryl Thomas
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 7:35am
Hi Peta,

hmm on 2nd thoughts that probably shoulda been

Hello Holga ! ... a beginners guide to Holga
photography


cheers,
Meryl


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Message no. 1316
Author: Lin Campbell
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 10:38am
Good one!!

Rolls off nicely gals!! ;)




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Message no. 1318
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 10:45am
Hi Meryl,

I like it :)

I'm glad you "got" the hello thing... :)

I agree that the self explanatory tag line is the way to go..

Thanks very much... do you mind if I use what you have suggested?

I really hope we have the option to build these sites in NED24... I'd
like to see how far I can run with it!!!

Cheers,

P


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Message no. 1366
Author: Meryl Thomas
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 6:39pm
Hi Peta,

I'm flattered! I don't mind at all... :) I'm glad it was a help

I'm going to build my site regardless of if we get to do it in NED24 for
various reasons: because my neighbour is keen to have a site, I'm keen
having something real to work towards and personally I want to gain a
better understanding of how to build a really usable web site

cheers,
Meryl


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Message no. 1319
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 10:48am
I could see the logo as being the big Hello Holga with the smaller tag line underneath it.. Kind of like the way Krug mentions in the book..

Hello Holga!

... a beginners guide to Holga photography



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Message no. 1367
Author: Meryl Thomas
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 6:40pm
looks really good Peta

M


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Message no. 1331
Author: Edwin Lynch
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:38am
Big question for you is: What is Holga?

Using those titles and having holga in your tags will only attract those
who know what it is - which might be okay? Is that what you want?

While "I" may not need to know what it is, does a "holga" user?


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Message no. 1333
Author: Edwin Lynch
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:42am
Okay, it has something to do with photography. Let me research . . .

Okay - after two minutes of research. What about:

Main: Hello Holga!
Sub: taking photos with your Holga camera.

Having said that "hello holga" won't really help the search engines if
that's in your h1. While "Holga Photography" will.

I'll step aside now for other comments...


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Message no. 1340
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:52am
Hi Edwin,

I'm just a bit worried that "Holga Photography" is a tad boring.... :(

P


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Message no. 1342
Author: Edwin Lynch
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:58am
Yeah - it's a bit boring. But that very notion will make you think
harder. Ask "How is my site better than all the other Holga sites out
there" What is my angle?

It's like me having a site called "Edwin" - meaningful to me (and other
Edwin's) but nobody else - so I lose all those who might have clicked on
"Edwin - a site for semi-professional filmmakers".

Do you see what I mean?

I'm being VERY pedantic. But i might be making you millions further down
the track ;)


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Message no. 1347
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 12:01pm
Hi Edwin...

Nice example... Ok.. back to the drawing board :)

I guess I got off the track as Krug emphasises the need for a "good"
title.. I took GOOD as meaning memorable etc.. rather than "good usability".

Ta,

P



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Message no. 1337
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:48am
Hi Edwin,

I'll take this into consideration, but I think anyone who is looking for
a beginners guide for a "Holga" will probably know what a "Holga" is...

Could I not get away with putting key words which will pick up in search
engines like "toy camera, high saturation photography, vintage images"
and stuff like that?

It's really hard to squeeze EVERYTHING into a tag line... isn't it!?

P


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Message no. 1341
Author: Edwin Lynch
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:55am
It's VERY hard. In screenwriting, we write one page synopses of our
ideas and when, inevitably, someone asks for the idea in one sentence -
we know we're about to spend one whole day working on it. I think it's
the same here. Usability is actually thinking a bit like a search
engine. How will we be found is often how we should title / keyword
litter our site.

To maximise your audience (for example, I take photos, too) you should
include amateur photgraphers like me - and while I knew what a Holga
really was - it was only because I found out in this forum!


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Message no. 1343
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:58am
Hi Edwin,

I see what you're saying... I guess because Holga is such a quirky, fun,
think outside of the box type camera that I wanted my site title to
reflect this. But if it's not going to be found then there's no point in
making a great site....

All good stuff for the next 2 assignments... Thanks for your help!!

P


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Message no. 1345
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:59am
P.s - It was the same frustration I had "not knowing what a Holga was"
which made me want to know more about it in the first place.. I saw an
image and wanted to know how it was made...

Ok.. I'll think more about this...

P


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Message no. 1369
Author: Lin Campbell
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 9:17pm
Nice one :)


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Message no. 1469
Author: Joanne Sinadinovic
Date: Monday, April 23, 2007 1:01pm
Well I do think "Holga Photography", although simple is quite perfect.
Maybe you could then possibly get creative with the tagline in an arty
catchy sort of way, as photograhpy sites are arty and creative etc.

(I do hope this post makes sense - it is currently nearing 12.00am over
here in the US and I have been glued to my chair nearly all day trying
to catch up on uni work!)

Anyway, some of my attempts:

Holga Photography
- capture those authentic moments

Holga Photography
- simple and natural

Holga Photography
- images that don't lie

Holga Photography
- the naked truth

Holga Photography
- the bare essentials

Holga Photography
- the world in its natural state

To be honest I had never heard of Holga cameras until I read your posts
etc. Since then I have searched the internet for images to view etc -
very interesting!!

Cheers Jo



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Message no. 1472
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Monday, April 23, 2007 1:31pm
Hi Jo,

Thanks for your reply! Yes, i think u are right on the tagline bit...
Still thinking.. hmmm

P

Screen Recorder

I was adament that I was going to use my small hand held video camera to shoot the usability testing until I tested it out. It was very not good in the usability department. It was hard to see the cursor and difficult to hold the camera straight and I don't have a tripod so that was the next problem.

Thanks to the help of fellow class mates I got introduced to Camtasia. This seemed like the way to go, but unfortanatley there is no Mac version. A few Yahoo! searches later and I found a program called Snapz Pro. I'vfe downloaded the trial and it seems to be working well so I'll be using that to shoot the usability testing!

Usability Links

It's been research, research the last couple of days. I've been learning a lot from the following sites.

http://www.usability.gov/refine/learnusa.html

http://usableweb.com/

http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000183.php

http://www.sensible.com

http://usableweb.com

https://www.cusys.edu/~irm/stds/usability/index.html

Browser Wars! Blogger on FF Vs. Safari

I thought I would post up some screenshots of Blogger on Safari Vs. Blogger on FireFox (both on Mac).

I posted earlier on the forums that I was having trouble with the link function in Safari. When I checked the same site on FF there was no problem.

This is a good lesson for me in terms of usability, as I am assuming that adding the link functions etc.. on Safari was simply too difficult for Blogger so they left it out.. Making it difficult to use = bad usability!

Friendly FireFox Blogger screenshot:




Not so user friendly Safari screenshot:





I aim to build a site which functions similarly in all common browsers and does not leave out important sections!

Eureka Moment!

Edwin was talking about Eureka moments on the blog today and yesterday I certainly did have one!!

In a chat with 2 fellow students from other subjects (Greg and Yani) we were discussing all things currently foreign to me such as PHP/CMS/MySQL etc... Those words or abbreviations had often been tossed into conversations between me and the web designer who used to work at my company i.e. the one who inspired me to take up the Net studies degree in the first place (who sadly has now moved back to the UK). Anyway, so he would explain stuff to me and say things like 'oh don't worry the CMS will take care about that, but I'm sure you will learn more about that down the track'.

I'm happy to say that from my conversation with Yani and Greg via MSN yesterday I am no longer scared of those words and can now start to imagine developing the types of sites which a client would want.

I had feared that I would never be able to do freelance web design as I knew that people would be asking for things like forums or search boxes and 'dynamic' web stuff. I thought all that type of stuff was way beyond me... but alas... Yani and Greg explained to me in laymens terms all the stuff I had wondered... What is PHP, why do I need a CMS etc...

For example, http://drupal.org/ which is free CMS which can help you put together a site which is edited by the client. Very handy.

Here is a screenshot of a site which Yani has been putting together using Drupal. This is the URL for the site, but it is still in the making and requires a login to see the pages in development. http://www.imagonullius.com




The CMS allows you to build a log in type system and only authorised users are able to change and upload content.

Here's a screenshot of the login area:



Kind of like a blog style. I found this to be a HUGE breakthrough in my learning. Because now when I do my usability testing and someone says.. 'oh I think you need a search box' I won't cringe and thing... 'ummmm.. yeah.. sounds good.. but.. I don't know how to do that....'. I can design away knowing that I will be able to build in basically anything they ask for! Hooray!!

Usability Report

It's full steam ahead at the moment with my usability report for NED23. My findings from research and questionaires has been very useful in putting the report together.

Many of my findings are useful for my scrapbook - I will post them here after I finish my assignment :)

Discussions on lomography.com site

Below are some posts from recent discussions on the site which I will be using as one of my test subjects.


Author: Peta Drury
Date: Wednesday, April 4, 2007 7:24pm
I had to share this with you guys..

Does anyone else feel TOTALLY overwhelmed when looking at this site?

http://www.lomography.com/

The frames, the ads, the everything about everything all over the place!!!!

This is one of the sites I'm including in my assignment, and the more I look at it the less I
like it!! It IS, however, a very popular site.... hmmmm..

Peta


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Message no. 1246
Author: Lin Campbell
Date: Wednesday, April 4, 2007 8:39pm
Hey there.... :)

Hmm... The content is a tad higgldy-piggldy - good choice for critique!

There aren't any frames used in the website though, which is a good
thing ;) Maybe you were referring to the scroll bars (?)

Fair few ads too...

Cheers.

Lin.


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Message no. 1248
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Wednesday, April 4, 2007 10:06pm
Ah yes - scroll bars.. hehe thanks Lin dear - it's getting late!!


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Message no. 1249
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Wednesday, April 4, 2007 10:08pm
Hold on... I've refered to them as 'scrolling frames' in my assignment... Is that correct
terminology?! confused...


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Message no. 1250
Author: Lin Campbell
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007 12:32am
Correct me if I'm wrong here crew, but I'm quite sure that you could
call it 'scrolling frames' if it was a case of 'scrollbars as a result
of frames - intentionally put in by frameset'...

In this case, I'm quite sure it's a DIV and CSS properties situation...

OVERFLOW: AUTO; type of deal :)

DIV sections with CSS OVERFLOW properties assigned, perhaps (?)

That's pretty long-winded -- maybe someone else has the correct
terminology ?

Just not so sure 'scrolling frames' would be the best words to use.

http://www.webmonkey.com/98/15/stuff4a/overflow.html

The link above might demonstrate it a bit more clearly....

Sorry if I've opened a crummy little can of worms - which may not have
been necessary... If so, throw them in the garden!! ;)

Cheers.

Lin.








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Message no. 1255
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007 7:07am
Hi Lin,

The reason I'm stuck with that word is I'm using a quote from Neilsen.... So I'm just hoping
that scroll bars = scroll frames or else i'll have to requote...

Edwin??

P


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Message no. 1266
Author: Lin Campbell
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007 9:20am
Hello--..

(Where does Nielsen refer to it as scroll frames?)

Does he use the term 'scroll frames' for overflow:auto; type scroll bars
does he? I'd love to know too, as I'll stop calling it CSS Overflow
Property if that's the case!! ;)

You know, as I said, it's probably just a nit-picky little thing that
Edwin might not worry about... I just thought it was called something else.

Regards,

Lin Boadicea Campbell.




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Message no. 1270
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007 10:23am
Hi Lin,

I might use a different reference as I'm confused now.. I'm sure there
are other sites that talk about excessive scroll bars...

Printing the full page is difficult with scrolling frames

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9612.html

P


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Message no. 1272
Author: Lin Campbell
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007 10:37am
Hey there Peta...

Just checked out the link...

Any extra scroll bars on any page generally cause printing problems, so,
perhaps you could put it in that light... In that case, you can just
say 'additional scrollbars' in general perhaps (?)

Frameset certainly has it's printing problems due to the scrollbars --
maybe you can deal with Frameset as a seperate 'no no' section ?

Just a suggestion ofcourse.

Sorry if I've confused.

Regards,

Lin Boadicea Campbell.


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Message no. 1274
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Thursday, April 5, 2007 11:00am
Thanks darlin!

Hopefully Edwin gets what I'm on about... By looking at the site you can
see 5 scrolling bars inside the main window! Crazy!

P


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Message no. 1330
Author: Edwin Lynch
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:36am
It's a crazy site. However - just at first glance, I think all it really
needs (providing it's doing what it's meant to) is a good colour scheme.

Instead of scrollbars, I'd show the last four news items / posts and
have a "more" at the bottom.

There's nowhere for your eye to settle. And it's hard to work out what
the site is about.


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Message no. 1335
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:46am
Hi Edwin,

Sadly for the site there is very little continuity and it's a nightmare
to find anything on. The HP is not so bad, but the rest of it is quite
confusing.. See my assignment for more :)

P


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Message no. 1329
Author: Edwin Lynch
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:33am
They aren't frames. As higgledy-piggledy as that particular site looks
(excellent choice for a usability test) it's using pretty okay CSS -
done in Dreamweaver.

No - they aren't frames. The code is better than that.

You could refer to those bits as "scrollable areas using CSS overflow"

It uses a lot of unnecessary javascript though - for the purists here. ;)


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Message no. 1334
Author: Peta Drury
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:44am
Hi Edwin,

I referred to it as excessive use of scroll bars... I hope this is ok..
My assignment is done and dusted now so I will go into more detail in
assignment 3.

Thanks,

Peta


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Message no. 1344
Author: Edwin Lynch
Date: Friday, April 6, 2007 11:59am
Lovely. looking forward to reading about it (and then quickly removing
any excessive scrollbars on my own site). :)