The Visual Lounge lets you find out about TechSmith behind-the-scenes. Watch screencasts and videos from other customers, meet up with your fellow TechSmith users and staff, and get more tips and tricks!

This week I'm dog sitting my sister's 6 month old puppy, Harry. I had forgotten what it was like to have a puppy in the house! This one little 40 pound change in the household has shaken up everything! I've had to change my routine, puppy proof the house, relearn dog training 101 and hide the toilet paper (he shreds it!).

That got me thinking about change. Just by sitting back and observing Harry, I noticed lots of ways I can make small changes around the house (place toilet paper up high on counter, hide the Wii Remotes) and change my habits (leave no food on counters) to mitigate problems and make both of our lives happier. The power of observation and change!

The same holds true for usability of software, apps, and websites. You can make minor changes that make a big difference. That's one reason why Morae can be such a powerful tool in your toolbox. Record and observe people with Morae interacting with your website or app and see where they struggle. Then, make small changes to improve their experience!

And, speaking of Wii Remotes... did you know with Morae 3.1 you can use a Wii Remote to set markers and log tasks during recording? This is perfect if you're a facilitator with only one computer, or are working alone. You can mark important moments during the session easily and quickly using the remote to set markers and start or end tasks without disrupting the participant (no need to use the computer they're testing on since you're using the Wii Remote). And, this ultimately can give you faster analysis. You can read more about it here

I hope I survive this week with Harry! Good thing he's so cute! For now I'll continue to observe and make small changes...

How do you do usability testing on a usability product? Today's guest blog post comes from Josie Scott. Josie is on our Usability team and she'll share with you how they conducted the studies for Morae 3. Enjoy!

No Time? Morae 3 to the Rescue! The turnaround time for studies is tight here at TechSmith like it is everywhere. My partner Casey Wright, working with Camtasia developer Bethany Wenzel, asked me to conduct a quick combination observation study and test of Camtasia's editing screen hotkeys for an upcoming release. I had a "whole" week to complete the study.

No problem!

I just set up the configuration and ran the study. Observing participants was easy using Morae 3 recorder's new recording details screen - I needed to have just the screen and audio recorded, along with all that rich recording detail. Morae 3 did all the work capturing the events for me. On the other end, I simply imported my recordings in Manager and analyzed them with the variable speed playback. I was done in no time. In short order, I had the answer to questions like:

• How real people edit with Camtasia
• What hotkeys they use now
• What hotkeys they expect to use

And, best of all, a neat little workflow analysis.

I captured this by looking at windows events and listening to users.

We love the cross recording search, new camera options, extended monitor captures, the improved surveys, and...ok, I'll stop; we don't have all day. My only piece of advice: don't let everyone know just how flexible and fast Morae 3 really is. That way, you can take your time getting to know what new little miracles Morae can perform.

Up next in our guest series about the development of Morae 3 is Sally Johnson who is from the Information Development team. With that, I'll let Sally take over this post... Enjoy!

Bio: I work as the Information Developer on Morae and UserVue, as part technical writer, ALL user advocate.

So, in my little bio line, it says I'm part technical writer. I did create all the help files that you can find in Morae Recorder, Observer, and Manager, but that was the "easy" part of my job. The most important part of my job is acting as a User Advocate on the Morae team, trying to look at the software through the eyes of the user.

At TechSmith, Information Developers work on the development teams to add helpful information when and where the users need it, whether it's in a dialog box, the help file, tool tips, online resources, etc. We also try to help identify where users might run into trouble. If the team can't come up with the perfect solution, we figure out where and how to best assist the user.

Conan, the Instructional Designer, and I are responsible for providing all of the user assistance for Morae 3. As you heard from Conan yesterday, we worked hard to incorporate user assistance right into the Morae 3 interface to give users the help they need, right when they need it. In addition to the in-product improvements, collaboration with many others on the TechSmith team has produced the greatest number of resources ever available for Morae!

So what are these other resources?

• The Morae Resource CD contains video tutorials, guides, checklists, templates, and more to help you succeed right away. Look for it at tradeshows and included with a purchase of Morae.

• The Morae At A Glance poster comes with the Resource CD and covers the basics of how Morae Recorder, Observer, and Manager work together. Our hope is that you'll use it to learn the basics, discover features you don't yet know about, and use it as a reminder of where and how to do things in Morae. (Note from Betsy - If you'd like a resource CD, e-mail me...)

• The Morae Learning Center contains almost 50 new tutorials, online and PDF versions of the help files, PDF documents that explain using Morae for various user research methods, and templates for user research plans, reports, and presentations. We will be adding new content frequently, so make sure you check it out.

• The Customer Research and Morae page of the Learning Center contains new documents created to help you understand how to use Morae with certain types of customer research. You will learn the high-level steps involved in integrating Morae with these customer research methods, all the way from planning to creating presentations.

• The Morae Learning Center RSS Feed lets you know when we have new or featured tutorials for you to check out. This is a great way to find out about new additions to the Morae Learning Center.

• The Morae Newsletter is a great resource for tips and tricks, case studies, and more! It's sent out monthly to your email, or you can hear about new newsletters through an RSS feed. Sign up today! Check out the archives to see what we've covered in the past.

Whether you are completely new to Morae, or looking for an answer to a specific question, we hope that you find all the user assistance that you need! If you don't find what you're looking for, have an idea for a tutorial you'd like to see, or have comments on what we have available now, please contact us at MoraeDocs@techsmith.com. We'd really like to hear from you!

Like Conan, I'll end with my favorite feature of Morae 3. I love the Morae Add-In for Word! When setting up a study configuration in Recorder, just type in your study and task instructions, open Word, and the add-in lets you pull your instructions into a Word document. No more typing things in two different places! You can also use the add-in to pull project components, such as graphs, graph tables, and surveys right into your reports!

For more on how these work, check out the Create Session Handouts and Create a Report with Add-In for Word tutorials. And when you're done, stick around and browse through the rest of the Morae Learning Center!

Just as we did with SnagIt 9, I thought I'd take you behind the scenes at TechSmith and show you how we got to the release of Morae 3. I've asked several people in a variety of departments to share what they did for Morae 3. I hope you find the information and insight useful! So, on that note, let's get started. First up is Conan Heiselt from our Training Department...

Morae is one of the most interesting projects I've worked on and especially Morae 3. As an Instructional Designer, my job is to help those that use Morae get adept enough, as quickly as possible, to do some amazing things. We're aiming to make "rock stars."

Two of the unique things about Morae, as a product, is that many, if not most, of its users use it somewhat infrequently. Some use it for a spurt once every month or two, others less than that. What that means is that each time they sit down to use Morae, they've forgotten bits of the process. The other opportunity/problem lies in that more and more people from different backgrounds and with different experience levels are using Morae to get user feedback. Originally, the focus was on usability researchers, but that is quickly expanding, not only because of the increased flexibility of Morae 3, but also since the market is starting to see that getting and incorporating customer feedback is essential, for everyone.

That's kept Sally, the Information Developer on the Morae team, and me pretty busy trying out different ideas and seeing what we could get incorporated into this release. Some of the improvements to help new and existing users learn Morae are links throughout the product to the Learning Center (Sally will be talking more about this), Quick Help in More Manager to expose some solutions you might not know about, Getting Started videos for each of the components, as well as a dozen other little tweaks we've suggested to help make the product easier to learn.

For the Getting Started videos, I took a slightly different approach than we normally do for tutorial videos. Going with feedback we received on the Morae 2 Getting Started videos, I created each of the component (i.e. Recorder, Observer, Manager) videos to act more like lessons. They are made to be viewed while performing the same action in Morae. This not only helps the viewer to learn at a much deeper level but to also retain what they've learned for significantly longer.

If you use Morae and watch the videos I'm very interested in getting feedback on how they have, or haven't, helped you learn. You can email your comments to Training here.

And I'll end by answering Betsy's question of "What's your favorite feature and why?" Wow. Only one? Hmmm...nope, can't choose just one. There're too many. Although, the variable speed playback really allows me to watch a lot more of the user tests we do. So, instead of skipping it because I don't have time the whole thing, I'm able to review many of the participants afterwards.

Conan Heiselt, prior to becoming an instructional designer, worked in the Information Technology field as a Systems Administrator and Engineer. While earning his Masters at Indiana University, he also conducted research on the use of immersive technology and narrative to aid learning. Since then, he has worked for several eLearning companies, designing courses on topics from marketing and business statistics to software testing and programming. Conan currently works at TechSmith where he explores ways to help those who use its usability products to shine.

I've been having so much fun in London and Glasgow, that I ran out of time to produce the screencast with Shane last week! That's Ian Smith in the pic to the left from the London Geek Dinner. I have to send a big thank you to the London Geek Dinner Group for the gathering last week. What a fantastic way to kick off the trip! And, a big thank you to Gary Short, Colin MacKay, and Barry Carr for a fine time today in Glasgow! I am truly grateful for everyone's hospitality.

Alright, back to the screencast! Click here to see the video with Shane that is all about what is new in Morae 3. Shane will show you how to use multiple cameras to test a mobile device, run a test with AutoPilot, analyze your tests, share your results with the new features and more. It's a longer screencast that runs over 28 minutes, but there is a table of contents so you can easily skip around. There's just so many great new features that we couldn't make the screencast any shorter!

And, if you're curious, I've been posting pics from my travels here. I've also posted my schedule and our Education Evangelist, Dave McCollom's schedule of events here on a new wiki. If you'd like us to participate in an event, e-mail me or post on our wiki. Hope to see you on the road!

We've been busy at TechSmith! I'm pleased to announce that Morae 3 was released today! And, if you have anything to do with your company's customers, you'll want to see what's new with Morae 3 so you can listen to them and adapt to their needs. Morae is perfect to see how people interact with a product, website or idea.

We've packed a lot of new features into this release. Morae now captures the entire customer experience - whether you're conducting a focus group, running a field study, testing hardware or mobile devices, doing paper prototyping or unmoderated testing or conducting software and website usability...

Morae 3 now makes it easy to:

• Capture real human interactions by recording two cameras - perfect for recording focus groups, indepth interviews, mobile device testing, and paper prototype testing.
• Record multiple screens - many people use two or three monitors nowadays. You can capture their entire desktop.
• Conduct un-moderated tests with AutoPilot - run your tests at a public kiosk or a tradeshow booth. You can gather data without being there.
• Present a survey after each task - ask more questions and have a better understanding of your users. For instance, you could run a pre-test survey to collect demographic data and also deploy a post-task survey. And, since Morae collects and stores all the data in one place, you can view and create graph results easily (great for your reports!).
• Faster video analysis with variable speed playback. Typically 10 hours of video equals 10-15 hours of logging. But with variable speed playback you can reduce time spent logging. You can review video in double time (or even faster).
• Compare metrics across multiple recordings - You can now easily see all participants' comments on a particular task or question. In Morae, you can search across your recordings to uncover patterns and trends in the data.
• Create a complete, professional report or presentation with a Word Add-in or PowerPoint Output to share with your team or client.

You can see all that is new with Morae 3 here.

I did a screencast with the Morae Product Manager, Shane Lovellette last week. That will be posted shortly so you can not only hear about the new features, but see them in action. And, over the next few days, we'll have some guest posts from the Morae team showing off new resources and how Morae 3 was created.

If you'd like to take Morae 3 on a test drive, you can try it out here.

I don't know about you, but whenever I travel somewhere and I'm not a native speaker, I always end up thinking about usability. When you're not able to read or understand what people are saying to you, you better hope they've put some thought into usability with whatever you're interacting with.

Take for instance the task of purchasing train tickets or even using an elevator. Even these routine tasks can be difficult tasks unless someone takes into consideration that a user may not be able to read or hear the instructions. Hopefully they have observed someone interacting with the machine. It can be pretty frustrating sometimes, but I'm always amazed at the kindness of strangers (and grateful too)!

And, on that note, I am in Paris this week for a conference and to meet-up with anyone who uses Camtasia Studio, SnagIt, Jing, Morae, and UserVue. And, yes, I had to buy a ticket to the Paris Metro off a machine like the one pictured to the above. And, no, I did not see an English option, but I managed to get my ticket nonetheless. :-)

So, with that in mind, this week's Screencast of the Week is about usability. It's done by Todd Follansbee of Web Marketing Resources. He made the video with Camtasia Studio but the testing was shot using Morae. Click the pic to the left to see Todd's video about website usablity. It's a quick one that runs less than 3 minutes.

If you're in Paris and would like to meet-up, please feel free to e-mail, call or text me (+1.517.410.0030). I'd love to meet-up!

I know what you're asking yourself, "What's a study configuration in Morae?" Study configurations in Morae are often misunderstood. Today's screencast from Conan Heiselt will help you understand what a study configuration is, why they are important and how to use them. It will make your life easier as they help ease the recording and analyzing of all the sessions in a study. The screencast runs 4:23 minutes. Enjoy!

TechSmith's Rich Recording Technology synchronizes video of the user including their audio and facial expressions, system activity like mouse clicks, Web page changes, and dialogue boxes, and the test application into one file that is indexed and searchable. You can read more about here. Today's video, from Conan Heiselt, is about how to use and search all of that data that Morae Recorder and UserVue capture to find some really neat things about what participants are doing. The video runs just under 3:30 minutes. Enjoy!

I was having so much fun at Macworld yesterday that I ran out of time to post the Training video! So, today is your lucky day! You get two screencasts!

First up is one from Ryan Eash about Camtasia Studio. This video is about saving out PowerPoint slides as images, and then importing them into Camtasia and adding voice narration. This is an alternative from recording voice using the add-in toolbar…and it gives some flexibility with being able to “extend the current frame” in voice narration, and being able to resize the image clips on the timeline a bit easier than video clips. This same process could also be used for creating title clips in PowerPoint and importing them into Camtasia Studio as well.

The next one is all about Morae from Conan Heiselt. This video is about troubleshooting Morae when observing takes place across networks. Networks vary immensely and sometimes users run into snags.

Sorry about the delayed video - One of our trainers making these videos had sick kids and was tending to them. Sick kids take priority over screencasting.

Our next video is whether Morae Recorder or UserVue is a better fit during certain different circumstances. Click the video below to start it playing - it runs just over 4 minutes.

Thanks for watching this screencast. I hope this video helped answer your questions about when to use Morae versus UserVue. What other screencasts would you like to see?

Conan Heiselt, prior to becoming an instructional designer, worked in the Information Technology field as a Systems Administrator and Engineer. While earning his Masters at Indiana University, he also conducted research on the use of immersive technology and narrative to aid learning. Since then, he has worked for several eLearning companies, designing courses on topics from marketing and business statistics to software testing and programming. Conan currently works at TechSmith where he explores ways to help those who use its usability products to shine.

I spent the day in Toronto at the EnergizeIT Conference today and had a great time meeting new people, seeing old friends and geeking out...

We got several questions in the booth about Morae. So, I thought I'd share one of the newer videos on our site. There's a 22 minute video that will show and tell you all about Morae, our usability and user experience software product. Click the screenshot below to watch the video.

The video is narrated by Dirk Frazier (pic below). He's a TechSmith Sales Engineer who specializes in Morae and UserVue. You'll find him at the TechSmith booth at Usability tradeshows or on the golf course (he's a great golfer).

We also got in some new Morae Swag to celebrate the recent release of Morae 2.0. I have a couple t-shirts to send out . You'll see the design below - yes, that's an orange with a zipper on it (wouldn't oranges be more usable if the skin had a zipper?!). They're modeled by two of our Morae Developers, David Wecker (front) and Scott Schmerer (back). If you'd like one, please drop me an e-mail.

I also have a few of these fab mini-whiteboards to send out as well. They're perfect to post on your door to let others know that you're conducting usability tests. Drop me an e-mail if you want one.

I'll post in the comments when I'm out of t-shirts and white boards.

I'm not always the best at them, but I love DIY projects! I am the person that would put stuff together, but end up with parts left over. Sometimes the finished project worked fine without the extra parts, other times...well, it wasn't so pretty. Ask me about the last computer I worked on. But on the plus side, family and friends no longer ask me to fix their computers. ;-)

We came across this great DIY project for the 'goto cam'. Don't worry, I won't make this project for you. The smart people at Gotomobile have figured out everything for you. They have a great, affordable, and easy to make mobile testing device that even works with Morae! Check out the directions here to make your own goto cam. Luckily, they give you all the directions to make it yourself!

There's a nice video at the end of their blog post where you can see the goto cam in action.

We're celebrating the release of Morae 2.0 today at TechSmith! We listened to feedback from users and our beta testers and made lots of updates and changes.

Some of the updates include:

• Graphing - Let Morae do the work for you. Morae 2.0 will calculate data and build graphs for you. Makes it easy to visualize your results.
• Built-in Survey Tool - you can easily measure participant satisfaction with Morae's new built-in survey too. No need for a separate tool.
• Tasks - Quit killing trees by using paper to track participant tasks. You can now define the tasks you want participants to perform in Morae 2.0.
• Markers - you can now view, edit, add more detail, and fix mistakes to your markers during logging on-the-fly...

More information about the release is here, complete with a Getting Started Video.

The Morae Product Manager, Shane Lovellette, sat with me to do a quick screencast to show off what's new in Morae 2.0. Click the screenshot below to watch the screencast. It runs just under 14 minutes.

Materials used in this screencast:

Hardware:

• Dell Latitude D820
• Samson CO3U Microphone

Software:

• Camtasia Studio v4.0.1
• Morae 2.0

Upgrade questions? Visit here!

Interested in making Morae better? Drop me an e-mail if you'd like to join our Advisory Board and start sharing your thoughts and feedback for future versions!

And, we'd love to get any of your feedback about the release. Please visit our feedback form here to send feedback directly to the Morae team.

We had a great time at World Usability Day today!

See the t-shirt that Mike Kujansuu, the Assistant Morae Product Manager, is wearing? Wanna look cool like Mike? We have some extras left over.

We have the following sizes available - Medium, Large, X-Large, XX-Large

First come, first serve...E-mail me your size, mailing address and phone number for shipping.

I've posted a few pics from the event here on Flickr.

I confess. Before TechSmith made Morae and UserVue, I knew little about usability and user experience. Now I can claim I know a tiny bit, but I still have a lot to learn.

So, I recently attended a local UPA meeting(Usability Professionals Association) and ran into Tim Keirnan. He mentioned to me that he and Tom Brinck were doing a podcast called Design Critique that's all about making more usable products for a better user experience! See their pic below - Tim's on the left and Tom's on the right.

I learn a lot every time I tune in. I like how they discuss the usability of products they actually use. And, you don't have to be a usability or user experience expert to get something out of the show. It's enlightening for all...

Visit their website http://www.designcritique.net/ And, you can sign up for the RSS feed through iTunes too.

Hey Tim - I still owe you lunch! Call me - 517.410.0030.

I'm off to the Canadian Rockies today for CanUX, the Canadian User Experience Workshop, to learn from User Experience (UX) experts and to show off Morae and UserVue!

There are so many great speakers at the workshop - including John Morkes of Expero and Free Usability Advice, David Crow, Jess McMullin from Business+Design, Kevin Cheng from OK/Cancel, Liz Danzico from the UX Magazine, Boxes and Arrows. I'll be constantly learning from experts.

So, if you're in the Calgary or Banff area, or attending CanUX and want to meet up, e-mail or call me (517.410.0030)!

And, you gotta love that name, CanUX (pronounced 'Canucks')! That's the best name I've heard for a conference in a long time!

I'm addicted to Sharpie markers! I like all the different color options.

But I'm not here to talk about my infatuation with Sharpies. Let's talk about another kind of marker - the ones in Morae. Like Sharpies, Morae Markers also have a lot of color and customization options.

Our Morae Newsletter ran an article this week about Morae Markers. Check out the article here.

And, sign up for our newsletters here. They're funny and informative...trust me, you'll like them.

Unlike Sharpies, these markers don't have that funny smell.

Earlier this week I posted some dates for some classroom training on Morae here. I just heard from our training department that in order to incorporate the newest features and functionality available in Morae 2.0, they're going to modify the dates.

Once I hear what the new dates are, I'll be sure to post them here. Coming soon!

On a side note, what cities would you like us to train in? I'll pass on your feedback to the training department. No guarantees on where they'll end up, but if we can show demand, they'll consider other cities!

I just heard some exciting news. TechSmith will be conducting some instructor led training for Camtasia Studio and Morae.

The training is geared toward beginning to intermediate users.

So, if you'd like to learn more about how to use Camtasia Studio and Morae, here's a great chance. Maybe you can teach me! I could certainly use the help. ;-)

If you'd like to know about the Camtasia training, visit here to see more details and the topics covered in the training.

Same goes for Morae...visit here.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact: training@techsmith.com. The training staff will get your e-mails.

Here are the dates and locations:

Camtasia Studio

• Chicago Aug. 28th - 29th
• Seattle Sept 5th - 6th
• LA Sept. 19th - 20th
• DC Sept 26th - 27th
• San Jose Oct 19th - 20th

Morae

• San Jose October 17th - 18th

We thought we'd do a little experiment and you get to benefit! Leave me a voice message on Odeo (click the pic below) about why you'd like to attend. We'll award one lucky winner for each locale with the most compelling message a free seat in the training! (You still have to get yourself to the location - but hey, free seat!)

Leave us a message by August 9, 2006 (be sure to leave your name and contact info on the Odeo form). We may also use your message in a podcast, so feel free to share your thoughts about TechSmith, our products, or anything else you'd like to share wtih the world! Good luck!

Hope to see you there!

In addition to TechEd, TechSmith is also exhibiting at the UPA show in Colorado this week!

While I'm not attending, I hear they'll be giving sneak peeks of The Astoria Project as well as what's new with Morae. There's still time to sign up for beta if you're interested.

They're even giving away a video iPod in the booth. So if you're in the area...and you're one of the last few people who doesn't have one...

And, if you haven't seen it, there's a newer white paper on our Morae Web site about the future of usability which you can read here. The white paper suggests a new paradigm for user experience (UX) research in a Web 2.0 world...UX 2.0

What topics would you like to see future white papers on?

The results are in for the Morae Outrageous Lab Contest

Congratulations to all who entered the Morae Outrageous Lab Contest! It was fun to read all the submissions and to see what the labs were like before and after the Morae makeover! It was hard to pick a winner - there were so many great entries! I'm glad to see the Apple video iPod go to a nice new home...all the way over in Finland. I showed great restraint and didn't even open it.

First place (Apple's video iPod)

Mikko Sola, usability consultant, WM-data, Finland

Before: "All of this sounds very technical and hard labor, and believe me, it was. We would not trade back to our previous system unless we would be paid double from our clients.

After:"We have performed several tests with Morae and found it to be useful and a productive environment for performing usability tests."

Second place (webcam and pocket drive)

Scott Kincaid, Director of Usability Services, Usability Sciences Corp.

Before: "To record the computer screen, we had to actually mount a camera on the wall behind the participants and capture the image over their shoulder. A 20 minute highlight tape took 1-1.5 days to create."

After: "We needed to create a quick 10 minute highlight from the findings... by using Morae we were able to create and compile this whole piece within 30 minutes."

Third place (Morae lamp and motherboard notebook)

Artie Pajak, usability analyst, University of California, San Diego

Before: "The camera is shooting over the participant's left shoulder and his face is in the mirror. Don't miss the tape dispenser... heavy enough to keep the bottom from sliding off the table."

After: "I've got a portable lab. Morae has allowed me to get rid of the cables, the TV, the MiniDV tapes, the Wal-Mart mirror and that heavy tape dispenser!"

Fourth place (Morae coffee kit)

Ron Perkins, Principal, Design Perspectives

Before: "My friends called it the 'James Bond Kit'; two black cases full of hardware and wires. I called it a huge headache."

After: "Set up time is about 10 minutes including laptop booting up. It is reduced to about three steps and two plug ins.

Honorable Mentions:

Phil Ohme, Certified Human Factors Professional, Intuit, Inc.
- For leaving $200,000 in lab setup costs to switch to Morae

Todd Follansbee, VP, Web Marketing Resources LLC
- For bringing along his lovely dog Otis on his Morae journey

Robert Thompson, Usability Analyst, Option One Mortgage Corp.
- For reducing both the time and stress levels involved in usability testing

Tobias Limbach, senior research consultant, argonauten360, Germany
- For the most creative pre-Morae cable simile: "All cables ended below a desk so you had to root through a massive black, dusty heap, bundled up like spaghetti. Not the type of spaghetti you curl up and suck down tutto bene, oh no, more like the type you get on your fork and instantly they slap in your face - que."

I was just alerted to this news story from one of my RSS feeds! Morae was used to test the usability of a GPS navigation system. What's great about this is that you could not have tested this in a traditional usability lab. They needed a portable solution to test a handheld device, and that's where Morae came in.

Read more about the news story here.

And, you can visit our website for an interview with Rob Tannen, PhD, is Director of Human Factors at Electronic Ink, for more information.

This is more of the more unique ways I've heard Morae used. Anyone else have Morae stories to share?

As an added bonus, I was just sent a video made Camtasia Studio from Todd Follansbee of Web Marketing Resources. He shares how he does usability testing of a Web site with Morae. Click here to watch his video.

I don't follow rules well - ask anyone at TechSmith.

So, it's no big surprise that I missed National Delurking Week this year. What's National Delurking Week you ask? That's where you come out from under your shell and tell me a little bit about yourself.

So, I'm not going to let missing a little date hold us back from participating! I want to know who you are so I can write and make videos about stuff you care about.

What do you have to do? We'll donate $1 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for every comment from a unique visitor in today's post that tells me:

• Which product(s) you use - SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Morae
• Where you call home

And, I'll throw in an extra $1 if you link to some work you've done with our products - or any comment that just makes me laugh.

I have up to $1,000 to donate to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children if we can get enough unique comments. If you're reading... please don't embarrass me by making me end up with a $3 donation.

Comments must be posted between now and Friday, February 24, 2006 at midnight EST. Comments must be on this blog post.

So, comment away, and thanks for reading the blog!

Last call for submissions for the Morae Outrageous Lab Contest!

We'll take submissions up until midnight EST on February 17, 2006.

Come on, you know you want a video iPod and a copy of the great book, "Call to Action" by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg. Best of all - it's SO easy to enter!

More information about how to submit can be found on our Web site at: http://www.techsmith.com/community/articles/labcontest.asp

So, we've just had three huge releases in the last two months at TechSmith. We hope you liked the new features and designs we added to SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Morae.

Now...we need to know what you'd like to see in our next round of releases. Here's your chance to have a stake in your software. But, don't make us guess at what you want and need. See how confused Camtasia Studio Product Manager, Troy Stein, and Assistant Camtasia Studio Product Manager, Travis Stoliker, look without your feedback?

E-mail, call, make us a video, send feedback in via our Web site or leave comments on this blog with your suggestions. Or, you're welcome to visit TechSmith and give us your thoughts in person. Seriously!

Get your feedback to us any way you can, because our software is only as good as your suggestions.

I see a video iPod in your future...that is, if you enter to win one in our Morae Outrageous Lab Contest!

We want to know what you did before Morae and how your lab changed after you got Morae. Hopefully it did not look as bad as this jumbled mess of equipment.

There are also other great prizes you could win such as a webcam and pocket drive, as well as a copy of the great book, Call to Action, by Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg.

And, there's a t-shirt for everyone that enters!

It's painless to enter, I promise! We just need help visualizing your old lab - send us your descriptive writing, photos or video by February 10, 2006.

Find out more about the contest and how to enter here.

And if you need me to test drive your new iPod before we send it out, just let me know...

After I posted the screencast about the new features in Morae, I had a few questions for viewers about what Morae does ... and even what it is.

So, I sat down with the Morae Product Manager, Shane Lovellette, for a quick Morae 101 screencast. In the screencast, Shane will demonstrate what Morae is, when you would use it in your organization, and how it will help you. Click the screenshot below to start the video.

Feel free to submit more questions by either e-mailing me or posting in our blog comments, and we'll try to answer them in a screencast. Let us know what you want the next screencast to cover!

What else can we say other than, 'Thank you!'. Morae 1.3 has just been released and its features are the direct result of feedback and suggestions from our Morae customers and users. Thanks for all your requests and suggestions!

Of course, we also used Morae to test Morae's usability. From those findings we were able to make key improvements to Morae's workflow and productivity. As a result, it's now easier and faster to share your test findings.

Mike Kujansuu, the Assistant Morae Product Manager, sat down with me to make a quick screencast to show off the new features and explain the benefits of each one. You'll also have to watch the video to hear how you pronounce 'Kujansuu'! You'll be surprised...

Click the screenshot below to start the screencast.

Here's a quick list of what's new. To see more about the features, please watch the screencast and visit here:

• Zooming Timeline
• Streamlined Editing
• Global Clip Bin with List View
• Enhanced Workflow
• Customizable Title Clips
• User-Created Folders
• Color Coded Markers

So, what can we do to make the next release of Morae better? We're listening and waiting to hear from you. You can call us, e-mail us, request a feature via a Web site form or leave us a comment here on the blog.

Thank you for all your feedback. Keep it coming! And, congrats to the Morae Team - part of the team is pictured below.

What's an Aardvark party, you may ask? Here at TechSmith we're celebrating the release of the DVD Aardvark'd, 12 Weeks with Geeks, by having a lunchtime screening of the movie!

Our good friends at Fog Creek Software partnered with Boondoggle Films to release a documentary about the software development process Fog Creek went through to release their newest product, Copilot. Fog Creek Copilot, which had the code name Project Aardvark, is a service that allows people to help other people solve their computer problems remotely over the Internet.

We donated copies of SnagIt and Camtasia Studio to the Aardvarks, which they used for documentation and marketing.

TechSmith was also the official sponsor of the usability testing of Fog Creek Copilot. Morae Assistant Product Manager Mike Kujansuu, Usability Specialist Magelone Bollen and I flew out to New York City to conduct usability tests on Copilot with 14 testers at Fog Creek's office. Part of our day conducting the usability tests with Morae is included in the movie! Fog Creek Software Founder, Joel Spolsky blogged about the usability testing on his blog, Joel on Software.

Since Morae records video of the screen as well as the user's video and audio, the Aardvarks could watch the tests in another room and could both see and hear exactly where the users had problems. You can view highlight videos from the tests here.

What's also exciting about this documentary is that I can finally give my family and friends a glimpse of what it's like to work at a software company. The documentary truly captures the software development process from start to finish.

To see what an Aardvark party looks like, here are some pics from our lunchtime screening.

Bravo Zulu Aardvarks, Fog Creek and Boondoggle Films! It was an honor to be a part this project!

Bonus Random Trivia - The man behind Boondoggle Films, Lerone Wilson,, spent most of his life in Michigan and spent some time as a student at my alma mater, Michigan State University, before transferring to New York University.

A technical writer and an evangelist walked in to the break room.

Doesn't that sound like a beginning to a great joke? It's not. It's very serious ... because it's about you.

This morning technical writer Kelly Mullins and I got to talking about tutorials. Specifically, we began talking about tutorials users might wish for - like how to record a webinar, how to play a Camtasia Studio video on a Pocket PC, or how to record a screencast.

And, I got to thinking ... rather than guessing what tutorials you want, wouldn't it be better if we just asked you?

So, here's your chance to be heard. What kinds of things are you trying to do, but could use some help with? What other tutorials or examples do you need?

Let us know ... and maybe we'll stop talking about you behind your back.

You can find a list of our current tutorials in our Learning Center.

'Happy WUD!' That's how I'm greeting everyone today on World Usability Day!

As I mentioned earlier, Human Factors International, TechSmith, and Michigan State University partnered on a research project and usability test in honor of World Usability Day.

We studied the ease of use for three travel sites when making holiday travel plans and to see if there was a difference in assessment between expert and novice users. A secondary goal of the study was to determine the degree to which remote tests are consistent with and as robust as the in-person tests.

Now, we have the results from the study, and you are welcome to view the test findings in a report available here. There are some highlight videos you can view as well.

I'll be taking some pictures at our local World Usability Event at Michigan State University today. Please visit my Flickr photo gallery to see the pictures from today's event. They should be uploaded later tonight.

So, today I say, 'Happy WUD' to you!

Only people passionate enough about a cause get an entire day designated to celebrate it. Who fits that description? Usability experts.

As a result, the UPA (Usability Professionals' Association) is celebrating the first annual World Usability Day on November 3, 2005, and they're inviting one and all to the party.

The goal of World Usability Day is to promote the fields of usability engineering and user-centered design. At TechSmith, we're excited to be a part of the event.

We partnered with Human Factors International (HFI) and my alma mater, Michigan State University, to conduct a usability study using Morae on booking online travel. Michigan State donated the use of their state-of-the-art lab. In addition to donating copies of Morae to the study, TechSmith and HFI both donated their usability staff to conduct each test and analyze the results of the study. Results will be published in the Morae Newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter and see the results, along with other World Usability Day information, sign up here.

What does World Usability Day mean to you? If you're a webmaster or software developer, you want your Web site and software to be easy to use and accessible to everyone. Plus, you want anyone who visits your site or uses your software to be successful. We share those goals at TechSmith, and that's why we're so heavily involved in the day of recognition.

If you're ever interested in hearing more about how TechSmith conducts usability testing, or you're in the area and would like to participate, comment to let me know.

Planning to attend Michigan's UPA event at Michigan State University on November 3, 2005? Please comment here or e-mail us - we'd love to meet up at the event.

At TechSmith we have a high commitment to listening to our customers. Our best features are built on the feedback from our users like you!

So, if we could add a feature or make a change to SnagIt, Camtasia Studio or Morae for you, what would it be? Share with us and others in the comments sections of this post.

Naming a new product is often one of the hardest things to do.I wouldn't wish this experience on anyone! If you've ever gonethrough the process of naming something, you know what I'm talkingabout ... whether it's your kid, your dog, or your pet rock.

We're often asked at TechSmith: what does the name Morae mean? So, I thought I'd give you a little background and the process we wentthrough to come up with the name Morae.

When naming Morae, (which is pronounced MOR-ay), we looked at namesto describe the product's functionality. We went round and roundto come up with a name connected to the product, but we were unable tofind a name that properly fit Morae in a way that explained itsfunctionality. So, we started looking for a unique name that hadnothing to do with the product.

So, we asked everyone in the company to submit ideas for names, and Alan Dennis from QA came up with Morae.

In Greek mythology, the Fates are the three goddesses that controlthe destinies of humans. In Roman mythology, the Fates were called Morae.

We liked the name Morae for a several reasons. One was that it wasunique and different. Then again, maybe it was just fate.