11 Best practices for doing Software Usability testing – I agree with most of what’s said, EXCEPT – or perhaps with a caveat – that you don’t need to record these sessions. I love watching live usability tests. Watching video of usability testing is second only to watching paint dry, but it’s often necessary to get key stakeholder buy in. It’s really hard for someone to argue with user after user after user explain why they can’t use X feature, and quite often that is the only evidence that’ll convince stakeholders that X feature is a problem for users. Not everyone has 4-8-16 free hours needed to sit through usability testing, so that edited video is really key. And lemme tell you, writing accurate – much less nuanced – notes for 16 hours of user dialog is almost as painful as watching those videos.

—–

Tool Alert: Visual Website Optimizer – I haven’t checked it out yet, but the tool looks interesting.

—–

10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling – Make it a New Year’s resolution.