Caroline's Corner: The joys of labelling - an orderly portable lab for £24.99

Don't get too excited. I still don't know a way of getting a portable usability lab for under 25 quid other than reverting to good old paper and pencil for recording. I'm referring to the 'orderly' bit.

Let me give you some context. I bought my portable usability lab equipment back in 1998 when consumer DV video cameras first appeared. I paid £1599 for a dinky JVC that you could get today for peanuts. It was worth every penny: small, unobtrusive, works without any hassle and was my constant companion for ages. I bought various gadgets to go with it and the whole lot packs into a small satchel.

Roll forward to 2003. I've successfully persuaded my clients to get their own equipment. The camera rarely gets used these days. And then a job came along that might well need it. So I dug it all out to make sure I could remember how to make it work.

The pile of equipment on the meeting room table was not a pretty sight, but after a couple of hours, two consultations of manuals, three moments of panic and a visit to Tottenham Court Road (the area of London that has a big selection of electrical and electronic shops) for a missing cable I'd got it all working again.

Then to the fun part. A couple of years ago, my husband persuaded me to buy a Dymo Pocket labelmaker. (Current model: Dymo Labelpoint 100, similar machines available from Brother PT1250 or PT1750). I love it. It's not at all like the old-fashioned ones where you had to turn a wheel to get the right letter and then push the punch, resulting in spelling mistakes and having to do the whole thing again. No, this little Dymo is a clunky hand-held with an alphabetic keyboard but it's quite intuitive to use and creates very tidy strip labels. That's the last time I'm going to lose a cable when I loan out the camera: they all have 'EFFORTMARK' on them now.

My favourite thing is making labels for plugs. Have you ever had to enlist a colleague when unplugging something? You're under the desk pulling at power leads and shouting "is it this one?" while the colleague says "eh?" and "what did you want to unplug?". And it's always when the under-desk area hasn't been vacuumed in weeks. Well, two minutes with my trusty Dymo and I've got a nice little label that says "video camera" or whatever. Sticks onto the back of the plug and saves lots of valuable time when packing up in a hurry.

Now that it's all neatly packed away I have a mystery to solve. Why is it that I have a huge pile of S-Video cables? Do other cables turn into S-Video cables if you leave them alone in a drawer? Is there a world surplus, so manufacturers sneak one into every box just to get rid of them? And why are they always really long whereas the matching audio cables are always too short? Beats me.

If you know the answer to the S-Video cable problem, or have any other comments or suggestions about this article, then please contact Caroline at:

Caroline.Jarrett@Effortmark.co.uk

Caroline Jarrett
Independent usability consultant specialising in forms, questionnaires and data capture.

Effortmark Ltd
w. www.effortmark.co.uk
e. caroline.jarrett@effortmark.co.uk
p. +44 (0)1525 370379

Associated Link: Effortmark

User Interviews - Analysis Simplified
Source: Webcredible, 6 January 2009
 
You’ve conducted your user interviews, but now you need to make sense of all that information you’ve gathered.

Why Products Fail
Source: ComputerWorld, 5 January 2009
 
Most gadget and software makers don't understand what users want most: control.

How to Design Websites for Mobile Phones
Source: stemkoski.com, 3 January 2009
 
Tips from Ryan Stemkoski's web design blog.

Pioneer of Cyberspace honoured
Source: BBC, 2 January 2009
 
A professor who invented a forerunner of the world wide web has been made a dame in the New Year Honours.

2008 in Review: Developments that rocked the world of User Experience
Source: Catalyst Resources, 1 January 2009
 
A look back at 2008 highlights some of the key developments that rocked the world of user experience.

2008: The Year Online
Source: MIT Technology Review, 31 December 2008
 
The business of social networking, cloud computing, and a flaw in the fabric of the Internet top the most notable stories of 2008.

Shoveling through the Spamalanche
Source: UN, 30 December 2008
 
A ‘Spamalanche’ of 3,000 emails will be waiting in your inbox by the time you get back to work. What can you do besides 'delete all'?

New guidelines boost Web Access
Source: BBC, 29 December 2008
 
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced a new standard to make sites more accessible to older and disabled people.

Measuring Emotional Engagement
Source: UN, 27 December 2008
 
New applications of electroencephalography (EEG) provide the means to gather detailed information on a user’s emotional relationship with a brand or service.

UXalliance thrives on Research strengths
Source: UN, 24 December 2008
 
The UXalliance provides clients with access to over 220 user experience professionals and 40 test labs worldwide.