Juliette Melton blogs about usability and other interesting topics. She also has a photoblog with some beautiful photos.

I try not to watch too much television. I knew that if I ever got a TiVo, I’d learn everything about it and try to understand it well enough to continue watching less TV but now on my own schedule. So far it’s been great.

Tonight while setting up My TiVo on the net, I noticed a link encouraging people to sign up as a beta tester. Nothing new there. Then I saw a link looking for user testers. Awesome! I knew TiVo put a lot of energy into the remote and the software but for some reason I thought they were done with user testing. It’s encouraging to see TiVo conducts usability testing on a regular basis. If you live in the Bay area, sign up and help shape the future of TiVo.

Kevin Hoffman and Whitney Hess have the honor of adding some usability to the Happy Cog family.

I’ve got some remote sessions coming up in a few weeks. Here’s how it works in a nutshell..

After working with my client, determining the overall goal of the study, as well as the target audience, I turn to a recruiting agency. They provide me with a list of participants.

On the day of the study, I start a WebEx meeting, dial into the teleconference number and await the participant’s arrival. Meanwhile, my client is connecting to the WebEx to play the role of Observer.

Once the participant logs into WebEx and dials into the teleconference, I hit Record Meeting and begin the interview.

I ask the participant to perform a series of tasks on a website. All the while, I probe, asking questions such as.. “What did you expect that link to lead to?” and “What would you do next?” and “What do you think about that feature?”

Probing, questioning, seeking… these are the things that help me formulate my report.

Once the interview is over, I check in with my client to see what they thought about the sessions and then I prepare for the next session. Repeat about six to eight times over the next day or so.

At the end of the interviews, I review recordings of the sessions as well as my notes and I dig into writing a topline report. This is a very high level document that captures my initial thoughts. Over the next few days to a week, I turn my thoughts into a report and then present it to my client, either in person or over the phone.

The report is a PowerPoint Presentation and tells a story about the interviews. It includes many details about the study, participant quotes, as well as recommendations.

The process of meeting with my client, recruiting and interviewing participants, and writing and presenting my report can typically be between a few weeks and a month or two.

Usability is a fascinating field. I feel privileged to be able to interview people and find out their reactions to the things we use. Based on those findings, it is a personal call to action to translate that which I’ve observed into something useful for my client. It’s quite satisfying, this thing called usability.