It all started innocently enough… During an introductory meeting with a rather large Global news organization, the question of handheld usability testing came up. This company was hard at work developing applications for cell phones and PDAs that would provide a device-appropriate format for retrieving and consuming the massive amount of text, audio, and video news content they have to offer. Apart from the considerable technical barriers that needed to be overcome in order to insure compatability with the various device operating systems and form factors, a reliable means for usability testing their applications and sharing the results with team members around the world, had not emerged. In particular, they had found it difficult to capture clear video of the test in process (which they wanted to be able to distribute to the wider team). “Sure” we said “we can do that…”

[insert sounds of hammering, sawing, and other “creation” noises emanating from a distant workshop]

A few weeks and several prototypes later, Peter is proud to announce Catalyst’s new Handheld Usability Testing Platform. We like to call it “Mantis” because it kind of looks like a praying mantis (kind of), and it also just sounds cool (kind of). Ok, I just made that up.

Just for fun, Peter made a video to showcase his new creation and we’ve also included some test videos that we made using a variety of handheld devices. The videos are .wmv format and can be accessed below. Let us know what you think! And, remember that Mantis is now available for handheld testing engagements, weddings, bar mitvahs…

Here’s Peter’s tour of the wonders of Mantis (2.85 MB)

Here’s a sample video of a Blackberry test (4.32 MB)

Here’s a sample video of a Cell Phone test (3.87 MB)

Here’s a sample video of a Treo test (2.94 MB)

NB: Peter wanted me to mention that these videos were compressed to make the downloads smaller and the actual videos are much higher quality. Feel free to contact us if you would like a copy of the full-size video.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2005 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Usability Testing, Handheld Devices.