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UI Design and Usability

Sidney de Koning
February 14, 2013

UI Design and Usability

Sidney de Koning

February 14, 2013
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  1. SAE INSTITUTE, January 2013, Sidney De Koning
    UI Design and Usability
    Cross Media Communication & Production
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  2. Introduction
    ✤ Who are you?
    ✤ Who am i?
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  3. Sidney de Koning
    ✤ Love coding and cooking
    ✤ Blogger: O’Reilly, FITC, Adobe, Funky Monkey, Culinerd
    ✤ Writer: Automating Actionscript Projects.
    ✤ Business owner - Mobile: Mannetje de Koning / Appcouture
    ✤ www.funky-monkey.nl
    ✤ www.culinerd.nl
    ✤ www.mannetjedekoning.nl
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  4. Course Overview
    ✤ What is Usability and why is it important?
    ✤ What is UI Design and why is it important?
    ✤ How do your users see the web?
    ✤ Ask questions and rethink you own browsing.
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  5. What is UI design?
    “The design of computers, appliances, machines, mobile
    communication devices, software applications, and websites
    with the focus on the user's experience and interaction. The
    goal of user interface design is to make the user's interaction
    as simple and efficient as possible, in terms of accomplishing
    user goals—what is often called user-centered design.“
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  6. What is UI design?
    “Good user interface design facilitates finishing the task at hand
    without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. Graphic design
    may be utilized to support its usability.
    The design process must balance technical functionality and
    visual elements (e.g., mental model) to create a system that is
    not only operational but also usable and adaptable to changing
    user needs.”
    Source: Wikipedia
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  7. But what does it mean in plain
    English?
    User interface design is the practice of creating something that a
    person interfaces or interacts with. Concrete objects or virtual ones.
    The person creating that experience has already done the thinking
    and makes sure that the interaction happens as simple and as efficient
    as possible.
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  8. What is Usability?
    “Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-
    made object.
    The object of use can be a software application, website,
    book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts
    with.”
    Source: Wikipedia
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  9. What is Usability?
    “It is widely used in consumer electronics, communication, and
    knowledge transfer objects (such as a cookbook, a document or
    online help) and mechanical objects such as a door handle or a
    hammer.“
    Source: Wikipedia
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  10. When ever you use a product (or any other object you
    interact with) or a website it should be easy to use and
    have a small (or no) learning curve.
    But what does it mean in plain
    English?
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  11. History of Usability
    First design principles: Vitruvius, 1st
    century BC.
    1. Firmitas: The strength and durability of
    the design;
    2. Utilitas: A design’s usefulness and
    suitability for the needs of its intended
    users;
    3. Venustas: The beauty of the design.
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  12. History of Usability: Military
    WWI & WWII: Canon design - Usability resulted in greater kills and
    shorter training for personnel.
    Question at the time: “What design do we need, to kill more enemies
    through better matching soldier and weapon? And thus avoid getting killed
    ourselves.”
    • How quickly will a new crew member learn how to use the artillery cannon?
    • How many rounds per minute (ordnance) is the cannon able to fire with an
    inexperienced versus an experienced crew?
    • How does a design improvement decrease soldier fatigue (as a consequence of a
    lighter cognitive load)?
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  13. History of Usability: Recent
    Companies assume people know computers and assume people
    know how to use them. They are wrong.
    Think Apple
    Video: Google Chrome
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  14. Thinking is bad.
    Or at least when you are visiting a website.
    Let UI designers do the thinking for you.
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  15. Enjoy != Annoy
    ✤ A well designed website is enjoyable.
    ✤ A bad designed website is annoying.
    ✤ A good designed site is like good lighting in a store:
    everything seems better
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  16. Things that make me think.
    ✤ Puzzles
    ✤ Buttons
    ✤ Titles / Text
    ✤ Links
    ✤ Where am i?
    ✤ Where should i begin?
    ✤ Where did they put _____ ?
    ✤ What is the most important?
    ✤ Why did they call it that?
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  17. Things that make me think.
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  18. Things that don’t make me think.
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  19. Things that don’t make me think.
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  20. Things that make me think.
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  21. Things that make me think.
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  22. 3 second test.
    ✤ Focus
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  24. 3 second test.
    ✤ What did you see?
    ✤ What did you remember?
    ✤ What stood out?
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  26. 3 second test.
    ✤ What did you see?
    ✤ What did you remember?
    ✤ What stood out?
    ✤ Good site: http://www.fivesecondtest.com/
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  27. donderdag 14 februari 13 Week

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  28. 3 second test.
    ✤ What did you see?
    ✤ What did you remember?
    ✤ What stood out?
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  29. But why is it important?
    ✤ Sometimes the competition is just a click away
    ✤ People will blame themselves and not the site
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  30. Actively thinking
    ✤ Google.com / Yahoo.com
    ✤ Amazon.com / Bol.com
    ✤ BBC.co.uk / Nu.nl
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  31. Actively thinking
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  34. donderdag 14 februari 13 Week

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  38. Mental Models
    ✤ We create mental models of everything around us.
    ✤ They are representation in your mind, of real or imaginary objects or
    situations
    ✤ We do this to make sense of the world around us.
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  39. Mental Models
    ✤ Mental model of Savana:
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  40. Mental Models
    ✤ Mental model of Savana:
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  41. Mental Models
    ✤ Mental model of Savana:
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  42. Mental Models
    ✤ Everybody has different mental models
    ✤ Usability makes sure that the is no other interpretation, by making
    use of specific guidelines.
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  43. Mental Models
    ✤ What is the mental model of an elevator?
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  44. Mental Models
    ✤ What is the mental model of an elevator?
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  45. Mental Models
    ✤ What is my mental model of an button?
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  46. Mental Models
    ✤ What is my mental model of an button?
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  47. Mental Models
    ✤ What does usability have to do with mental models?
    ✤ Users use their own mental models to perceive and figure out
    how a system works.
    ✤ This is not an active process.
    ✤ We have to streamline the way a user thinks by thinking for
    them.
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  48. Categories Hierarchy
    Category: Chairs
    Abstraction
    How do humans think?
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  49. Shapes Trends
    Recognition
    Patterns
    How do humans think?
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  50. Recollection
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  51. Mental Models
    ✤ We create mental models of everything around us.
    ✤ They are representation in your mind, of real or imaginary objects or
    situations
    ✤ We do this to make sense of the world around us.
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  52. What do mental models have to
    do with usability?
    ✤ Users use their own mental models to perceive how a system works.
    If the don’t, they’ll figure something out
    Expected
    behavior
    UI
    System
    Actual Behavior
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  53. UI Design
    ✤ What are the most important Usability rules in User interface design?
    1. Work flow and prioritizing functions
    Rank most commonly used or most important menu items from
    top-down left-right. Visualize work flow top-down left-right.
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  54. Workflow
    An example of an installation guide
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  55. Prioritizing
    An example of a Word processor
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  56. Workflow & Prioritizing
    An example of a web browser tool bar
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  57. Workflow & Prioritizing
    Nokia software installation guide......
    ?
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  58. Workflow & Prioritizing
    Windows 1.01 / 1981
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  59. Workflow & Prioritizing
    Gnome (Linux)
    Mac 2008
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  60. Inform the user of the state
    of the system
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  61. Inform the user of the state
    of the system
    Media players / Pause and play buttons
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  62. UI Design
    ✤ What are the most important Usability rules in User interface design?
    Work flow and prioritizing functions
    1.
    Rank most commonly used or most important menu items from
    top-down left-right. Visualize work flow top-down left-right.
    Match between system and the real world
    2.
    Language, terminology, part of speech, translation,
    semantics
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  63. UI Design
    Gnome
    Mac 2008
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  64. Match between system and the
    real world
    Media
    1. A plural of medium. See Usage Note at medium.
    Medium
    1. Something, such as an intermediate course of action, that occupies a position or represents a condition
    midway between extremes.
    ...
    4. pl. media Usage Problem.
    a. A means of mass communication, such as newpapers, magazines, radio, or television.
    b. media (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The group of journalists and others who constitute the
    communications industry and profession.
    5. pl. media Computer Science. An object or device, such as a disk, on which data is stored.
    6. pl. mediums A person thought to have the power to communicate with the spirits of the dead or with agents
    of another world or dimension. Also called psychic.
    7. pl. media
    a. A surrounding environment in which something functions and thrives.
    b. The substance in which a specific organism lives and thrives.
    c. A culture medium.
    ...
    11. A size of paper, usually 18 × 23 inches or 17 1/2 × 22 inches.
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  65. Match between system and the
    real world
    Sheet
    1. A broad rectangular piece of fabric serving as a basic article of bedding.
    2. a. A broad, thin, usually rectangular mass or piece of
    material, such as paper, metal, glass, or plywood.
    b. A flat or very shallow, usually rectangular pan used for baking.
    3. A broad, flat, continuous surface or expanse: a sheet of ice.
    4. A moving expanse: a sheet of flames.
    5. A newspaper, especially a tabloid.
    6. Geology. A broad, relatively thin deposit or layer of igneous or
    sedimentary rock.
    7. A large block of stamps printed by a single impression of a plate before
    the individual stamps have been separated.
    8. Mathematics. A surface of revolution generated by revolving a
    hyperbola about one of its two symmetric axes.
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  66. Match between system and the
    real world
    Page
    1. a. A leaf or one side of a leaf, as of a book, letter,
    newspaper, or manuscript: tore a page from the book.
    b. The writing or printing on one side of a leaf.
    c. The type set for printing one side of a leaf.
    2. A noteworthy or memorable event: a new page in
    history.
    3. Computer Science. A quantity of memory storage equal
    to between 512 and 4,096 bytes.
    4. Computer Science. A webpage.
    5. pages A source or record of knowledge: in the pages of
    science.
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  67. User’s Mental Models of web content..
    .. how is the content accessed?
    .. using Analogies?
    .. using Metaphors?
    .. using Stereotypes?
    .. using Functions?
    Match between system and the
    real world
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  68. The content accessed through..
    Grouping information visually / Semantically
    Text Typeface / line space / length of sentences
    Colors Wave length / Contrast
    Match between system and the
    real world
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  69. The content is displayed using conventions
    (Conventions are called conventions because they work for
    the large majority)
    For example:
    A shopping cart
    Site navigation on the left
    Tabs
    Conventions
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  70. High level navigation
    amazon.com
    nu.nl
    Navigation examples
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  71. Low level navigation
    bellen.nl (good product navigation)
    consumer.philips.com (Filtering and sorting are mixed up)
    Navigation examples
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  72. More Examples
    red-dot.de
    (Expandable menus issue)
    www.mediamatic.net
    (Good text layout)
    designcouncil.org.uk
    (Graphically busy page)
    page-online.de
    ......Where am I?
    More examples
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  73. Tree-categorizing” of extensive product information.
    3.
    Match between system and the
    real world
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  74. “Tree-categorizing” of extensive product information.
    Tree - categorizing of extensive
    product information.
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  75. Grouping information and layout
    4.
    Match between system and the
    real world
    ✤ What are the most important Usability rules in User interface design?
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  76. Grouping
    Page-online.de
    Designcouncil
    Mediamatic
    Red-dot.de
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  77. Avoiding Mistakes:
    ˒ Question conventions
    ˒ Informal reviewing
    ˒ Early prototyping
    ˒ Evaluation
    ˒ Recognized method
    ˒ Own method
    ˒ More? Click me!
    Avoiding mistakes
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  78. Usability Testing (on a budget)
    ✤ Why test? The Rules.
    ✤ Different methods of testing.
    ✤ Test? How?
    ✤ Scenarios
    ✤ Personas
    ✤ Online
    ✤ Onsite
    ✤ Mobile testing?
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  79. Usability Testing (on a budget)
    ✤ Myth #22: Usability testing is expensive.
    ✤ Testing can be done by students or interns
    ✤ No money? Offer free lunch or other fun incentives.
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  80. Why test?
    ✤ Jacob Nielsens study (link) shows that with 5 users you reveal 85% of
    your site’s problems. 15 users find pretty much all problems.
    (truth: zero users results in zero insight)
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  81. Why test?
    ✤ Knowledge + learning + change = better site or app
    ✤ After design changes, test!
    ✤ After minor changes, test.
    ✤ During development, test.
    ✤ Before, during and after site is done - test.
    ✤ Test, test, test!
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  82. Why test? The rules.
    ✤ The first rule of Usability Test Club is: You do talk about Usability Test Club.
    ✤ The second rule of Usability Test Club is: You do talk about Usability Test Club.
    ✤ Third rule of Usability Test Club: someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the test is over.
    ✤ Fourth rule: minimum of 5 people for a test.
    ✤ Fifth rule: one test at a time, fellas.
    ✤ Sixth rule: try to do a minimum of 5 tests per site or app
    ✤ Seventh rule: tests will go on as long as the task in the script tells you.
    ✤ And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first time at Usability Test Club, you have to test.
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  83. Different methods of testing
    ✤ Heuristic testing
    ✤ One person, one observer.
    ✤ Working prototype of site/app.
    ✤ Cognitive testing
    ✤ More people, one hall monitor.
    ✤ Give user specific task.
    ✤ Theoretical or working prototype.
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  84. Test? How?
    ✤ Make the user feel comfortable
    ✤ Be careful how you phrase your questions
    ✤ Do not lead the user
    ✤ Tell the user to “think out loud”
    ✤ Pay attention to facial gestures
    ✤ Identify frustration and emotion
    ✤ Keep track of hesitation and time delays
    ✤ Refrain from attempting to assist the user
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  85. Test? How?
    ✤ To perform a proper test you need:
    ✤ Personas - Who is this person that is visiting our site?
    ✤ Scenarios - Describe the user's goals and the tasks
    he/ she will want to accomplish.
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  86. ✤ The people and pictures can be fictional but the details
    should be factual.
    What do they do? And for how long?
    How do they live? And where?
    What do they eat? And why?
    ✤ Why personas?
    Defining a specific user's goals and needs
    Giving teams a focus with a common understanding
    Personas
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  87. ✤ Bob is 52 years old and works as a mechanic with an organization
    offering road service to customers when their car breaks down.
    He has worked in the job for the past 12 years and knows it well.
    Many of the younger mechanics ask Bob for advice when they
    meet up in the depot as he always knows the answer to tricky
    mechanical problems. Bob likes sharing his knowledge with the
    younger guys, as it makes him feel a valued part of the team.
    ✤ Bob wonders if he will be able to cope with the new computer
    system. He doesn’t mind asking his grandchildren for help when
    he wants to send an email to his brother overseas, but asking the
    guys at work for help is another story.
    Personas - Example
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  88. ✤ Write an engaging scenario, with style
    “When you got home from work you found the fire department at
    your home and your house in ashes. You are in shock. You need to
    contact your insurance company and what you should do now and
    also find out if they can arrange for a place for you to stay while
    you get this disaster sorted out.
    is more engaging than:
    “You are trying to figure out how to file a claim on your insurance
    policy.”
    Scenarios - Tips
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  89. ✤ Examples:
    “I want users to be able to easily use the information on my site to plan a road trip
    around the Southwest. My scenario: Parents of 2 pre-teens want to take a road trip
    around Colorado and Utah. They want to start in Denver, stop at archaeology sites, go
    on hikes, and find nearby camping or hotels. They find my site by doing a search on
    Google for ‘visiting Anasazi ruins by car.’"
    “I have an online jewelry store. We put our URL in our newspaper ads and most people
    get to us by typing the address. A shopper should be able to compare rings in a particular
    price range ($500 to $1000, for example), get answers to questions (can I pick the
    gemstone, for example), pick one, and buy it online.”
    Scenarios - Tips
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  90. ✤ Begin with the low hanging fruit - easy questions first
    - What is your general impression on this site?
    - What is the site about?
    - How long does it take before you understand what the
    site is about?
    Scenarios - Tips
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  91. ✤ Don’t ‘lead the witness’
    Write the task as “find the right electric drill that will meet your
    needs”
    rather than
    “Click the link that says hardware. Then click on power tools.
    Then pick an electric drill.”
    Scenarios - Tips
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  92. ✤ Different tests:
    ✤ impression tests, 5 second test:
    http://clueapp.com/ and http://fivesecondtest.com/
    ✤ click tests and heatmaps/confettimaps / :
    http://theclicktest.com/ and http://www.crazyegg.com/
    ✤ humans tests (on a budget):
    https://www.mturk.com/
    Test? How? - Online
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  93. ✤ Simple setup: Laptop / screen record setup
    ✤ Usability labs / camera - observer user situation.
    ✤ Screen record software:
    ✤ Silverback
    ✤ Camtasia / Morae
    ✤ iMovie
    ✤ Screen record App in Quicktime
    ✤ Cost: +/- 50 euro
    Test? How? - Onsite
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  94. ✤ Test setup:
    ✤ Old mobile phone or camera with video possibility
    ✤ Wood fixture / Ikea lamp / Tripod
    ✤ Tie wraps / sugru
    ✤ Reflection / Silverback
    ✤ Cost: -/+ 15 euro
    Mobile testing
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  95. Mobile testing
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  96. Mobile testing
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  97. Mobile testing
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  98. Mobile testing
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  99. Mobile testing
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  100. Mobile testing
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  101. Mobile testing
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  102. Mobile testing
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  103. Mobile testing
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