Novelty side projects are awesome. Unfortunately many are ridiculed for being a waste of time but in my opinion they’re gold when it comes to self-education.

Imagine the OS X Lion experience recreated in CSS3. That’s just what Alessio Atzeni has done, and it’s crazy detailed. Neat stuff to pick apart!

Advertise here with BSA

Throttling comes in as a need for various reasons. I’ve wanted to throttle my connection a number of times to test the sequence of JavaScript events that get fired, check out how the initial load of a page would feel, or include some graceful fallback for those times when a connection would completely drop. Formerly, I would use the Charles Web Debugging Proxy and it was awesome.

Charles, at a very high level, was a proxy that you could direct your requests through and it would throttle how fast things took place. The recording tools were awesome, but way beyond what I was needing to do. The other issue with it was a required dependency on a Firefox Add-on. With that, you could only simulate alternative network conditions in a single browser.

Network Link Conditioner changes that by offering an altered connection on a system level, allowing you to throttle your bandwidth top to bottom. The pref pane gives a number of options for throttling too:

All in all, I’m really excited to have discovered Network Link Conditioner. Unfortunately, it’s limited to OS X Lion, so if you haven’t upgraded the preference pane won’t be available. If you have upgraded, Network Link Conditioner is not installed by default, but you can find it and install by double clicking /Applications/Utilities/Network Link Conditioner/Network Link Conditioner.prefpane — enjoy!

Advertise here with BSA

Lack of client knowledge

It’s extremely rare that I’ve had an interaction with a client where the phrase ‘usability testing’ doesn’t garner an inquisitive look. At the very least, mentioning usability usually sparks an interesting dialogue, but it’s often the first time clients have heard of such a thing. That also mean it didn’t make it into the budget for this project.

Client assumption of expertise

If a client does understand the purpose and value of usability testing, they may be curious why you’d like to have usability testing sessions on their website if you’re a professional designer. If designing websites is your profession, why should you need to test your design concepts? Shouldn’t they work already? Why should we pay for that?

Where’s the value?

In my personal experience, usability testing, unless requested, is often an addition to project scope that clients aren’t willing to pay for. Unfortunately, client bias as far as their experience on the Web often has detrimental effects on their interface design when they begin to direct the project a bit too much. It’s at those times when a usability test would come in like The Dark Knight and save the interface once and for all.

While that list is extremely truncated and narrow, it gently sums up my experience with usability testing client work.

Fortunately, a negative response to usability testing isn’t completely consistent. From time to time a client will come in fully versed in the importance and value of usability testing. It’s a pleasant surprise to hear a client say they’d like to integrate testing into the process as a way to ensure their product will perform to the best of our ability.

Testing environment

The process of usability testing itself can be put together a number of ways. Much of the time, a usability test will be conducted in a closed room. The user being tested will sit at a workstation with an instructor, who will request certain actions from the user and observe his or her method of completing that request. The computer screen is recorded using additional software on the computer, and the interaction between the test subject and instructor is recorded with a video camera.

The process is quite basic, but the knowledge gained is invaluable. Viewing the footage from the camera in sync with the screencast from the computer will bring design flaws to the surface for examination. Compensating for weakness in the design and repeating the test helps to create a much more effective interface.

Enter Silverback

Silverback first hit the Web boasting a unique site and a killer application icon. The design itself quickly made huge waves among the design and development community, a genius move. No one had any concrete information on the purpose of the site, but we were drooling already. We knew Clearleft had something very interesting up their colelctive sleeve.

Skip ahead a few months and we find out exactly what Silverback is; Spontaneous, unobtrusive usability testing software for website designers. Fantastic! Silverback is going to bring usability testing to Mac in a big way.

What does Silverback do?

My favorite applications do one thing and do it well. Silverback will be one of those applications. The website follows the same path by explaining the purpose of Silverback in a short, to-the-point list:

• Capture screen activity
• Video the participant’s reactions
• Record the participant’s voice
• Add chapter markers on the fly
• Control recording with the remote
• Export to Quicktime

Silverback fills a niche market of designers looking for a quick and easy way to conduct usability tests that will integrate easily into a workflow. Silverback is it.

Silverback is an application that doesn’t need an instruction manual. While the feature set isn’t extensive, the application follows a natural workflow allowing you to easily discover application use within a few seconds.

After creating a new project, you’re able to begin your test sessions. Each session is logged for future reference.

Before each session begins, you’re able to ensure the camera used to record the user’s face is properly positioned. You can also record the users name as well as any notes you have about the session. After starting the session, the screen will blank out in preparation for your subject.

A straightforward instruction screen is in no way intimidating to your subject.

Sessions are neatly organized for future reference. It really can’t get much easier than that. If applicable, you’re able to easily export any session. You can set a number of options, including the size and position of subject footage.

Another great thing about Silverback is the slick integration of the Apple Remote. Using the remote, you’re able to interact with the recording behind the scenes. You’re able to insert markers in real time, allowing for quick navigation of an exported QuickTime composite. I think that’s a great idea and fantastic example of ingenuity.

Silverback is game-changing

In my opinion, Silverback is offering an extremely low cost, effective solution for many designers. At $49.95, you would be hard pressed to find a better option for Mac at this point. A big congratulations to the group at Clearleft for a job very well done. I’m very much looking forward to improvements made in the software.

Advertise here with BSA

So why did I switch to OS X?

There was a long time where I had no interest in anything Apple was doing. I’m not sure how to provide much detail, but I was put off by Macs since working with them in high school. There are a number of Macs in my office, but a lack of interest prevented me from doing much of anything with them.

It’s no secret that Apple stole the hearts of so many people in the design and development communities. Each may have their own reasons, and many take the time to let others know why they enjoy Apple so very much. Their reason didn’t appear to be because they’re (all) blatantly against Microsoft, the reason seemed different. When the Internet repeatedly became, dare I say, plagued with articles written about just about anything going on in Cupertino; my interest was piqued. To put things simply, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

It was about the software

A major driving force for my interest in OS X was the software. Time after time I would read an article referencing this gift of an application; TextMate. I watched a few screencasts and my jaw dropped; snippets would change the way I work completely! I tried my hardest to find a Linux equivalent, and ended up finding something that would suffice by using SciTE with TextMate style snippets. I was instantly hooked to tab-triggers. Not only do they save you many keystrokes, they can help you avoid frustration from forgetting a quote or semicolon somewhere. I came across E Text Editor at some point, and was again drawn to TextMate. The application was far superior to what I had pieced together using SciTE; I really wanted to learn more about it. Reading a few articles had me convinced that it truly was a fantastic editor for my personal use.

Another factor contributing to my eventual Apple endeavor was Adobe. While I had no major problems using a virtual machine to get Windows XP up and running, it was quite a resource hog paired up with Photoshop. Booting the VM and then running Photoshop would bring the machine from a steady sprint down to a moderate jog. Slicing and cutting comps approached annoying in the increased time it took to get things done. While running Windows inside a VM really wasn’t a huge deal, I’ve got a bit of OCD when it comes to productivity.

Additionally, I began to question what I would do five years down the road when it came to working in Photoshop. It’s flat out essential for me at work. I tried to picture Adobe taking the time to announce their effort to port the most popular applications from the Creative Suite to Linux, but we all know that isn’t happening any decade soon. I refused to explore the possibility of running Windows Vista, so would I continue to use Windows XP until the day I retire? Neither option sounded very compelling.

It was about the hardware

It’s true that there have been quite a few articles published which act as a horror-filled documentation of an individual experience with Apple, but they’re computers. Bad things happen from time to time, take a look at some of the review threads on Newegg, you’ll find opinions from one end of the spectrum to the other for nearly every product available. Overall, I heard many good things about the hardware itself. I checked things out in more detail and I was impressed with what I found. The build quality of Apple hardware is impressive, and that’s a huge selling point for me. I’ve had my fair share of “discount” hardware and been sorely disappointed.

One thing I was also looking forward to was the “it just works” factor. With Linux, things will definitely work, it’s just that sometimes they require a bit of elbow grease to get the gears turning. If you’re into that sort of thing (which I can truly say I am), then Linux is really that much more fitting for you. I had a lot of fun working with Linux, but when it came down to it, I wanted to get work done faster. Plugging in an external monitor and having OS X automatically enable the display and find the native resolution was a welcome change to editing xorg.conf. There are many more details about the hardware itself that was a selling point, but the overall quality of Apple products was another attractive feature to look forward to.

At the end of the day

Finally, I went ahead and picked up a MacBook running a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, popped in 2 gigs of RAM, and went on my way. The first couple days were all discovery, but nothing out of the ordinary. I had spent nearly two years in a Linux-only environment, so I was partially used to working with an entirely new operating system.

I made the switch to Mac about six months before the time of this writing, and I can say that overall I’m glad I did. I now see why so many designers and developers simply love OS X. With a bit of tinkering, you could make a Linux installation look quite good, but OS X is quite stunning out of the box. The great thing is, applications follow suit. Many applications written for OS X pride themselves on their design.

After six months, I can say that I’ll probably be sticking with Apple for the foreseeable future. The software is great, the hardware is great, and the aesthetics are a nice bonus. I wanted to make sure I had at least some experience before writing that I had made the switch, whether it be good, bad, or great. I really enjoyed my time working with Linux, and had there been a native version of Photoshop to accompany it, I may have never made the switch to be honest. I still use my Ubuntu machine quite a bit. It’s an in-house development server, a file server, as well as the machine on which I capture and touch up photos (using LightZone which used to be a free download for Linux). Linux is by far the operating system I would suggest to someone looking to change things up a bit. You’ve got all the benefits of a UNIX-based machine (as you do with OS X) without the cost. If you’re not strapped to working on tight deadlines, Linux with a virtual machine to run that application or two you simply can’t live without is a completely great solution.

I hope this article didn’t come off as my waving a brand new Apple flag, I simply wanted to offer my experience of switching from Linux to OS X as opposed to the usual Windows to OS X move. If you’ve been back and forth asking yourself whether or not a Mac is for you, the best way to find out is to try. I know it’s an expensive trial, but simply working for a few minutes on a friends machine really doesn’t help you see whether or not OS X is for you. If you’re simply itching to rid yourself of Windows, give Linux a shot with a virtual machine. You really can’t go wrong with a free operating system filled with free software.

I hope to offer some more detailed accounts of what I like about OS X, but I thought I’d test the waters with a bit of an introductory article to see if it’s anything readers have an interest in. Would you rather me not single out software/hardware in what I write? I know that articles written about Apple in general can come off a bit fanboy-ish, and that’s what I’d like to avoid, as I’m not trying to tout OS X or Apple in any way. If readers might be interested in finding out more about the tools I use and my process with them, I’d be more than happy to put some pieces together over the next few months.

Advertise here with BSA