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Back in 2006, TechSmith launched UserVue to help our users conduct remote usability testing. And, like many of our products, we needed UserVue so we could conduct our own testing on our website and products.

Fast forward to 2010. The demand for UserVue has not been growing as much as we'd like. Therefore, TechSmith will be discontinuing development on UserVue and will be phased out shortly. Although we're no longer offering annual licenses of UserVue, we will continue to provide monthly subscriptions and free technical support for a short period of time. The last day to purchase UserVue will be July 19, 2010, and as of August 24, 2010, service for UserVue will officially end.

Still need to conduct remote usability tests? Here are some other options to conduct remote usability testing using Morae instead of UserVue:

You can use Morae with any available screensharing application, such as GotoMeeting or Webex. Simply install Recorder and run it on the facilitator's computer. Use the screensharing application to connect with your remote participant. You can either view what the participant does on his/her computer, or give the participant control of the facilitator's computer in order to share a prototype. Either way, Morae Recorder will capture everything the participant does on the screen. You can then analyze the remote sessions with Morae Manager and create video highlights to share. You can find a detailed tutorial on how to use Morae for remote testing here (PDF).

To all those who used UserVue - Thank you for your support of UserVue and TechSmith through the years. We appreciate it and hope you keep the feedback coming so we can continue to develop products you need.

The Astoria Project is no longer...it's now operating under its official name - UserVue!

The beta of UserVue is still rolling along, and you still have time to join in if you're interested. The beta will run until we launch UserVue around the end of September.

There was a new update of UserVue last week. There were several new, important features:

• Integrated telephone calling and recording - UserVue will call the facilitator and participant over the phone, automatically record the conversation, and synchronize the audio with the participant video.
• Improved participant interface - The user interface for the participant has been greatly improved to take up much less screen space. It is now unobtrusive for the participant and very simple to use.
• Video scaling for facilitator and observers - The screen video from the participant can now be scaled in the facilitator and observer applications. This makes the screen video view higher quality.
• Event capture is now integrated - RRT is now part of UserVue so all Web page changes, mouse clicks, keystrokes, and window events are captured and synchronized with the video when you import the recording into Morae Manager.

Please join our beta...We want and need as much feedback as possible from the new changes.

The product Web page has been updated here: http://www.techsmith.com/uservue.asp. Check out your new favorite program!