They wrote up a short weekly report and started producing highlights tapes, showing them at the weekly UI meetings. Usability test participants include computer novices, Internet novices, regular Internet users and, starting in 1997, current WebTV customers. Their hardest customer to satisfy is the computer novice, as the product functionality must be very explicit. They sit down with the UI designers and walk-thru a product or feature, trying to identify problems before it goes into the usability lab. Starting in the Summer of 1997, they also began field testing their product in customers' homes.
Customer surveys are also an integral part of their testing strategy.
The first product, Web TV Classic, was launched in Sept. 1997 and even today in their current Charleston Ave. Usability testing is conducted in teams comprised of the primary product usability engineer and another usability engineer. One tester controls the test and interacts with the participants while the other observes the test and records observations in a log. They continue to produce weekly highlights tapes which are now aired, along with the usability tests, on their own internal cable channel. Most staffers have a TV at their workstations so they can tune in any time.