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Video Review of TapeFailure – watch your users use your site
I had a chance to check out a new app in private Beta called TapeFailure. I was thinking it had something to do with backups and server protection but in fact it is a way to tape your users. You basically create tapes of your users and their interactions with your page.
You setup a code for each page, plug the Javascript code on your page and that's it. You can set it to record every x session and it creates a page showing the OS, browser and screen resolution. Tapes can be played online or downloaded for offline viewing. This tool is a great complement to a heatmap tool such as Crazy Egg. They also offer some interesting stats about mouse movement.
Here is an overview of the difference between TapeFailure and other analytics packages, "Tapefailure does not collect basic data that other analytics software (such as Google Analytics) gathers. Instead, it focuses on what the user does, not who the user is or what they use."
Check out my full video review below. My only current issues with the service are:
- make the playback window wider – 8×6 is not wide enough
offer a way to see a complete user experience from page to page – right now it appears to stop on the click (which actually is not registered from what I can tell)— it can do multiple pages as long as you set the correctly, I made a mistake
If you want to see the tapes I have recorded, or want to do a test with your computer on CN, just let me know. Corsin also let me know of another private beta in the same category, ClickTale.
Hello,
Pricing per month starts at 3.95, but there is a discount when more months are purchased.
If you would like to see the full price chart, check out the third screenshot on http://www.tapefailure.com
Joshua
Tapefailure Staff
Ahh, I didn’t even realize you can click on those screenshots :)
Thanks for the beta invite. Tried it a bit this morning and I’m excited about the service.
Keep up the good work. I can see this being very useful.
Justin
Very cool product (and nice screencast). Any idea what the pricing is going to be and if there’s going to be a free level? Was there any noticeable user experience slowdown from all that tracking?
Thanks for the kind words Justin – it is a pretty cool product. We could make up walls of lcds and just watch people browse :)
There was no slowdown for me – the JS file is about 10kb and gets cached. As for price, I have asked Joshua (founder) and hopefully he will reply shortly.
Looks like a great tool. From your screenshots, sessions appear based on IP address so I guess an option to see ‘tapes’ based on the user’s ID on the site will make it even better.
I can’t wait to try it out…very innovative and priced really nicely too :) Well done!
Very cool. I’ll look forward to buying a subscription, I like your pricing.
This is an amazing alternative (though not a perfect replacement) to standard usability tests, which are time consuming and expensive…
I’d have two concerns–
1) How does it deal with pages that are ajaxy/heavy on JavaScript?
2) It doesn’t seem to track entire user sessions across the site… Most usability tests are multi-screen. I’m sure they can pull this off at some point or another.
Tony – they can do multi-page tests. I was incorrect in the review. I am in the process of updating it now.
I agree about how far these testing tools have come. And I agree that its not a 1-1 replacement, it can provide a lot of the crude initial testing before the fine tuning process begins.
The site looks great! I never knew such a thing was possible (tracking the mouse) but it is and the tape idea is extremely innovative!
This site should be a hit since it’s something unique…One thing that could be improved is a progress bar for the tapes (so you could skip ahead instead of sitting through the whole tape.
I cant wait to start using this service, it just looks the nuts!