As a User Experience Researcher, I am tasked with observing participants as they interact with various stimuli such as websites, mobile devices, paper prototypes, etc. As I observe their actions, I also probe to find out all that I can regarding their thoughts, frustrations, and comprehension. The way I keep track of all that I observe is to take scrupulous notes and record video from each session.

For written notes, I use a Livescribe Pulse Smartpen. Most of the researchers at AnswerLab have one of these pens and it comes in handy especially during the report writing phase. As I write my report, I’m constantly referring to the notes I took during each session. Once I see something interesting that I wrote, I simply tap on the word with my Smartpen and instantly, the audio from that moment is played back to me. This makes it easy for me to step back in time and hear exactly what happened. With this pen, the process of adding user quotes to my reports is easy and accurate.

For video recording, we typically use Morae Recorder. Somewhat of an industry staple, Recorder does a fantastic job of recording the participant’s computer screen as well as their facial expressions when a webcam is attached. Often, we’ll simply export each session to .WMV format, burn a disc and send it to our client. Sometimes our clients will request that we create highlight clips. Morae Manager specializes in that task, allowing me to efficiently create video clips and merge them together.

Here’s my dream. A mashup of Livescribe and Morae. Currently, these two products exist in separate silos. Though I use them both to record my sessions, neither tool works with the other. Imagine if Livescribe and Morae understood how to talk to each other…

The session starts. I press ‘Record Session’ and automatically, Morae Recorder begins recording and Livescribe begins recording as well. Working together, both devices are capturing the session. At the end of the session, I excuse the participant and press ‘End Recording.’

Back in the office, I fire up my computer and load the recording. As usual, I flip through my hand-written notes to find the perfect quote. Once I find one, I tap on a word as usual but then something very different happens from the norm. On my computer, Morae plays back the video from that particular moment in time. Now, not only am I able to hear the audio, I’m able to see the video. Now that would be amazing.