What makes Silverback a usability program?

Question

I can't get any reply from Clearleft, so I will ask here.

What makes Silverback a usability program? I mean, it records audio and video, from webcam and desktop. Like many others.

1. Does it show how many clicks some application zone have? Or you have to see the videos and count? Do they work some sort of data?

2. Can we record several user tests and, at the end, have the metrics together so that we can have a overall view of the result?

Please, if the answer is no, then, just reply no, and, if possible, place some alternatives if you found any.

Answer 1

Silverback is an awesome app but as others have said its not really for quantitative data. It does show mouse clicks but not capture them other than flashing a coloured disc where the mouse click occurred.

Answer 2

Silverback (and similar software) is used for qualitative research and AFAIK does its job very well. Collecting quantitative data does not make much sense in this context. If you want useful quantitative data you need much larger sample sizes (definitely much more than just ‘several’ tests).

Literature:

• Albert & Tullis & Tedesco (2010): Beyond the Usability Lab: Conducting Large-scale Online User Experience Studies
• Kuniavsky, Mike (2009): Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research
• Rubin, Jeff & Chisnell, Dana (2008): Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests, 2nd Ed.

Start with Kuniavsky.

Answer 3

Have you tried using Clearleft's Get Satisfaction site? ( http://getsatisfaction.com/clearleft ) I don't see many unanswered threads on there, so I'm thinking that's probably the best place to reach out to them.

I found the following question which may be relevant to your enquiry: http://getsatisfaction.com/clearleft/topics/mouse_click_data

Finally, it's worth noting that Silverback has a 30-day free trial. Why not download it and see if it fits your needs?