Portable Usability Labs

The Ovo Studios portable usability lab is designed for the following data gathering situations:

software usability tests
focus groups
seated interviews.

The anticipated interview environment is a conference room where the user and administrator are co-located at a table or desk. In the event of a software usability test, if you can source a spare monitor at the customer's site, test administrators can watch the user's computer desktop on that monitor.

Our Modular Architecture Maximizes your Investment

An Ovo Studios Portable Lab Logging Core can double as the Logging Core in a fixed lab if you are recording two* video sources. This means you can dock your notebook computer in your fixed lab for a usability test and then un-dock it to take your testing on the road.

*If you record more than two sources in your fixed lab, you will need the processing power of a workstation computer. In that case, you will need a dedicated notebook computer for portable testing.

Included Equipment

Our portable usability labs consist of the following components:

Ovo Logger on a notebook computer. This is the core of the portable lab and enables the following functions:

Logging your usability test
Recording camera output
Recording the user's computer screen
Making video highlights
Writing your report
Exporting your report in HTML format.

Screen recording hardware, for recording the user's computer screen in native XGA (up to 1600x1200.)
All necessary hardware and accessories including webcam (for recording the user's face), VGA splitter, LAN hub, USB microphone, power strip, all interconnecting cables, and rolling case (small enough to be carry-on luggage for air travel.)

Our Portable Lab Philosophy

Portable labs should be compact, robust, and able to leverage commercial off-the-shelf components for emergency repairs.

As practitioners who have traveled with portable labs, we know the challenges associated with usability testing on the road; we designed a portable lab that meets our standards for methodological flexibility, portability, and ease-of-use.

Set-Up Time Metrics

Our lab takes about 15 minutes to set up and 15 minutes to pack up.

With an Ovo Studios portable lab, while you are packing up your lab, you can burn your preliminary report and all A/V data to a CD-ROM for your customer. On the plane ride home, you can write your report, make highlights, and publish your report in web-ready format.

Customization

Our flexible portable lab architecture can accommodate almost any functional request you have. Modifications we've made for other customers include:

Remote observation room A/V feeds.
Two-camera setup.
Scan-converter and PIP kit.