Your first paragraph made me laugh It’s actually very funny. Myself I do get upset and curse at my computer sometimes. I do try to keep it under control though, but we all get those WTF! moments now and again, when you just can’t take it any more Or at least me & some others I know. I know a whole bunch who are just too nice to their computers! I wonder if they ever suffer from built up computer rage? Hmm…

Now you’ve explained think aloud a little more I can understand why delays would be less apparent. It does sound like a good concept and certainly it’s something I think everyone does to a lesser extent on a daily or weekly basis, or at least I’d hope so. I’ve never set about doing an evaluation with a feature using only this technique nor have I ever tried the technique even. Sounds like it could be a worthwhile experiment.

Perhaps even with some good requirements specification, with nice little wire frames it could become a proactive testing technique? Think about it! It’s not uncommon for usability testing to be done from requirements specification & that in itself is proactive testing right?

Let see how good our requirements are next release & I’ll update you on how it goes.

Nice one Anders!

Cheers,

Darren.

Regarding the think aloud. It’s a few (hmm, maybe it’s actually 10, I’m getting old) years ago since I last did one. But IMO, when speaking their thoughts users (1) think more slowly and (2) tend to be more polite, accepting. The think aloud test is great for finding the things in the UI that confuse users, but not that good to show the emotional side of things, frustrations etc. But of course it depends on the situation!