Silverback, a new OS X application from the renowned UK-based design team Clearleft, was a mystery for quite a while. The app had a site with some neat visual tricks and a gorilla with a clipboard, and it said the application was for designers, but what did it do? The suspense was killing us! We finally had a chance to test Silverback this week, and if you design websites or application interfaces, this program is worth the wait.Silverback basically turns your Mac into a full-featured usability testing station. Add a new project, add some users, and have them come sit down and test out your interface. Silverback hangs out unobtrusively in the background, capturing video of the the entire screen, including a cute (and useful) effect that marks where your tester is clicking. This in itself would be handy, but Silverback also takes advantage of your built-in iSight camera to include a picture-in-picture of the tester's reactions, on top of the screen capture.
This way, you can see everything the user is doing in real time, and they can speak comments aloud as they come up, rather than pausing to write them down. Usability testing the old-fashioned way generally involves expensive setups and lots of instructions, but Silverback is intuitive to use and provides straightforward and informative results. Silverback is currently in private beta, so some testers can test its testing functions (this makes our heads hurt a little bit.)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-12-2008 @ 10:23AM
Bufsabre said...
that picture gives me bonzi buddy flashbacks
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5-12-2008 @ 10:33AM
Joe said...
Wow, that is a great little app. Now if I only had a Mac >.
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5-12-2008 @ 5:47PM
Grant Crowell said...
I'd be interested to hear about any beta testers' experience with the program so far. Any screenshots or manuals available?
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5-12-2008 @ 8:51PM
Amy said...
Ugly! Gorillas! Go! Away!
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5-13-2008 @ 3:25AM
Zeb said...
There's a PC app called Morae that's been around for a while which does exactly the same trick. It's not the most intuitive but has loads of features like adding annotations, editing videos and remote desktop sharing (so other people can view the test situation from their desks). I hope Silverback is easier and more intuitive to use and has a good feature set.
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