User Test Logger: An Open Source Browser Plugin for Logging and Reporting Local User Studies

Abstract

Tooling user studies tasks is fundamental to reduce the burden of evaluators, practitioners, facilitators, and observers during user interface (UI) evaluations. However, available tools for collecting data beyond clicks are usually paid, count on limited vocabulary of UI events, have complex setup, or do not provide easy download of captured data. In this context, we present a general-purpose data logger for local user studies able to capture up to 40 different types of UI events. It provides detailed data logging, downloading, and reporting features. The evaluation of the tool was performed in a focus group with 4 Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) specialists. The focus group resulted in new features and changes/corrections in existing features. The redesigned tool is open source and freely available to the HCI community. The tool can be used by HCI specialists or data scientists as a core tool for empirical evaluations or an additional data source in mixed methods assessments, offering greater control on types of events captured and counting on multiple types of report.