Flash Databases!
So when we were assigned to explore some software methods for user testing it took me a little while to figure out where to go and what to do. I think it was tricky because I know how to do all the obvious user testing things in a few different softwares: Flash, Processing, etc; but after I sat there for awhile I got excited about the prospect of generating some real data in Flash… nice numbers that I could keep track of. Because Flash is so web-friendly, it also made sense to figure out how to test and grab results from people remotely… so that meant databases.
Until this project, I had done very little php, mysql stuff. I had hacked other people’s code to get a few things done… but nothing much. I was excited to get some more mysql under my belt, and especially, integrating it with flash. What I ended up with was a flash app that asks users to complete a few tasks, sends their data to a database, then reports their results and the average of all the past users’ results.
Turns out, Flash-Database talk is really straight forward, while PHP-Mysql syntax is NOT… but I’m getting used to it.
Enabling Flash to record data… especially UI data is really great. I can now send out an email to a hundred people asking them to test my Flash doc, and then keep and eye on them without being there or explicitly hearing from them. Time, clicks, almost anything can be recorded and sent… I guess the trick then becomes the WHAT and HOW to record.