Video Temporal Compression Techniques to Facilitate Usability Evaluation

Video of users' interaction with interfaces is a critical data source for usability analysis. Compared to other forms of usability data (e.g., think-aloud protocols, recorded log files of interface events, or interviews with users), video has the unique advantage of preserving content and context, which helps in inferring user goals and how they map to actions. • Video shows all user actions in the interface, including both the traditional user events (e.g., button clicks, typing, dragging windows) and short but significant non-events (e.g., moving the cursor to a menu, pausing, then moving to another menu and pulling it down.) • Video shows what the user sees, including what's typed, what error messages are generated, and how windows appear on the screen.