If you are doing or moderating an observational usability test, you will want to capture a recording of the screen interactions and your participant’s voice (audio) as they are completing the task. This guide will help you to do that.
Note that the screen recording instructions here do not include a visual recording of your human participant – only of the mouse-clicks they take on-screen, and any audio as they talk aloud while completing the task. Additionally, we recommend that all screen recordings are anonymised, for example, screen recording video files should be named with a datestamp only, and not contain the participant’s name or any other personal information.
An example of a typical screen recording can be found here.
Setting up a screen recording
- Open your favourite screen recording tool (see list below)
- Check that the screen recording is set to include mouse-clicks and audio
- Select the region of the screen that you want to record
- Start recording
- Run through the user test instructions
- Stop recording
- Save the file on your local drive. Use the date and time as the filename, for example, 2017-12-01_10-23-am.mp4
- Upload the file to a public share drive such as dropbox, cloudup or Google drive, and paste the link into the test instructions
Screen recording software and apps
Mac
How to record your screen on a Mac using QuickTime
Windows
How to record your screen on Windows using ShareX
Linux
How to record your screen on Linux using SimpleScreenRecorder
iPhone or iPad
How to record your screen on iPhone or iPad using the native iOS11 app
Android Phone or Tablet
How to record your screen on Android phone or tablet using a few different apps
