Solution: Perhaps the Silverback team can look into integrating the Seesmic API and offload the video part to the Seesmic platform and give your users access to the video this way. Just a thought!
@AAinslie

http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBackExpress/Home.aspx

I appreciate the feedback, but comparing wasn’t really the point or purpose of this article.

Thank you for the information on Camtasia. I don’t have experience with it, but can now look into it further.

It’d also be nice to edit session names and so forth, along with other usability features… considering the nature of the app IS indeed usability. :)

For all those PC users out there, that if you want an alternative to Silverback you should try Camtasia studio. It does the same thing. I am in no way affiliated with them. You can run a 30 day trial, it records webcam video and mic audio alongside the screengrab. It retails at $299 which is a lot more expensive, but still won’t break the bank….

Camtasia is not as simple, sexy or fashionable as Silverback.

But I’ve used both and personally think Camtasia is better. Video export is (much much much) quicker, many more options for output (Flash video!), more options for recording too (record only part of the window for example) and you can use it to stream your session to others.

I reiterate….Silverback is great! But this is for all my UK-public-sector-working-on-PCs-with-no-hope-of-lovely-Macs brothers and sisters out there!

(and shame on the original article for not including a “PC” alternative!)

The biggest thing to remember with this is that it is a version 1 release. I look forward to see how they address some of these issues with future releases. As they mention on their website, you can track status of some of the items in their Get Satisfaction account.

1. Testing web apps on a Mac inherently is a problem, since most people aren’t familiar with the Mac interface. We were doing a test here in Taiwan using Parallels to run IE7 and it worked ok, save two things: they didn’t know how to switch input modes between English and Chinese and Expose kept screwing them up (big tip there: turn off Expose before your tests).

2. You have to export the videos before you can watch them which is quite time-consuming (especially on my 18-month-old Macbook). I would like to be able to watch them in Silverback first before deciding to render or delete.

3. I can’t save / export an entire Silverback project, videos and all. I really don’t like this because I can’t archive the tests and then delete them off my storage-needy Macbook.

Otherwise, it’s a great product with the (as heavily-stressed above) low price point and generally has made usability testing a reality, not a dream, for small organizations.

(BTW: whenever I leave a comment on this site, it always tells me I’ve got the maths wrong the first time when I clearly haven’t.)

For those designers and developers who’d like a little tuition on how to set-up, moderate, and analyse the results of a usability test, we’re running a one-day guerrilla usability testing workshop in November here in Brighton. Come if you can!