Report: My First Real Live Usability Study

Today I conducted the very first of several one-on-one interviews for an upcoming redesign. Here are a few lessons I took away from the experience:

1. Turn off the phone (both office and cell) before the user arrives.
2. If you're using a mac, turn off active screen corners and Spirited Away!
3. iMovie cuts off at twenty-some-odd minutes and takes as many to transfer to DV, so if you're trying to be fiscally inventive with your "video recording" keep the session you'd like to record to less than 20 minutes and record in one fell swoop. Otherwise use a real video camera. This item has been updated.
4. Snapz Pro doesn't seem to do too well with hour-long captures. Next time, capture individual tasks in separate movies.
5. Asking questions that branch out of the subject of the website, "Let's say you're new to Durham... where would you go to find a good place to eat?" can offer a nice glimpse into a person's local infoCloud without being too probing.
6. Asking the same question in different ways can sometimes chip away at a default answer and lead to insight.
7. It is hard to avoid asking leading questions (the same goes with speaking for the user when repeating their answer).
8. I think it would be more beneficial to have a third-party conduct the interview (so that users don't hesitate to provide criticism).

[UPDATE: Quicktime Broadcaster solves this problem nicely. You can record for long periods (an hour and a half was no big deal) and the file encodes while recording, so you don’t have to wait for the encoding process afterwards.]