Hats off to LiLiPUT: Experiences with Lightweight Lab Equipment for Portable User Testing

Towards mobile user testing equipment – requirements and approach Our notion of computer use is quickly diversifying beyond the classical desktop-based setting. With the transition towards mobile and ubiquitous computing, it is important to also think about new ways of usercentered research. Whereas for web sites and office software, a broad choice of validated design guidance is available, methodologies for design and evaluation of mobile applications and services are still unsatisfactory. On the other hand, for many recent ubiquitous applications and services, the classical stationary usability lab is simply not any more the adequate research environment. Mobile user testing equipment for telecommunications applications has to fulfill a number of challenging requirements (compare [2]). Most obviously, it needs to be portable. This requirement imposes strong demands on the form factor and power consumption of cameras and recording devices. Mobile user testing must also take account of the various context factors affecting the user cognition and behavior, such as the environment currently visible, weather conditions, the current location, or the noise level. The recordings need to have the same richness, accuracy, and reliability as standard stationary labs. For example, the mobile device screen status should be recordable. Additionally, one of the most important requirements is to enable a natural and seamless usage behavior, without impeding the user by too much observation technology. For instance, the mobile device should be freely movable in every direction and the observation equipment should not be experienced as heavy. It is quite evident that today’s solutions for user testing only partly fulfil these requirements (compare [4]). ftw.’s wearable mobile user testing prototype LiLiPUT (ibid) is designed with the ambitious goal to satisfy all of the above requirements. As Fig. 1 depicts, all the user wears is a hat, which is equipped with small video cameras and a microphone. The captured data is transferred via wireless link to the accompanying observant’s backpack. All data – four videos showing the front view, the face view, the remotely captured mobile screen, and the observant’s camera, as well as the microphone input from the user’s hat and the observer’s shoulder – is mixed into one video file and saved on a standard dual core high-speed notebook. In this way, LiLiPUT is able capture much of the mobile context in an accurate and efficient way, while still facilitating a seamless and natural usage situation.