Thanks to Allen over at Center Networks. I got an invite to the closed beta of TapeFailure.
TapeFailure is a service that allows you to visualize what your users are doing. As Allen alludes to it will be a great addition to services like CrazyEgg and Google Analytics once TapeFailure gets a few kinks worked out.
Recording – When TapeFailure is “recording” a user on your site, you get this constant “Waiting for www.TapeFailure.com…” which seems to make your site look like it has problems. (See Below). As you may have it, (thats right I’m recording You!)
This must be fixed, I’m no javascript Guru but if anything it should be showing, “Waiting for www.AddedTraffic.com…” not some other site, that has Failure in the name, this just doesn’t portray what I am trying to get my audience to think of my site.
To Record or Not to Record- they need to be able to implement a way to allow / disallow IP’s from being recorded. I really don’t want to see what I’m doing on my own site, I only want to see my users. As I type this, I am being recorded, this should be interesting to review.
It just wasn’t worth watching
Fix the Statistics Page – there also seems to be an issue with the Statistics Page. I understand this is closed beta but this definitely needs to be fixed, if they wish to compete, or compliment the establish brands out there. e.g. (Crazy Egg)
Playback Tools – Playback of recorded videos seem to be lacking a lot, from what I had expected. Its a very unique feature, but some sort of speeding up of playback is necessary, other wise you will be sitting there watching some of your users videos for quite some time. Also playback speed seems to be slower than real time, this has its pros and its cons, but I think being able to switch up the speed is a huge value added feature.
Replay Screen Size – Currently the TapeFailure beta product shows videos in a small screen, so when the mouse moves the screen follows it, not allowing you to see the whole screen. This is a minor detail but it should be fixed in the final product.
Record Entire Visit – Allen at Center Networks stated:
“they can do multi-page tests. I was incorrect in the review.”
I have yet to find this feature but I truly hope this is added in the final product.
Pricing – According to Joshua the founder of TapeFailure:
“Pricing per month starts at 3.95, but there is a discount when more months are purchased.”
In my opinion, this is low, so fix up the features and raise the price a buck or two, and you get the best of both worlds. I have always been the fan of offering a quality service for a bit extra, giving the user the best possible experience. This is the approach my hosting company (DreamHost) should take, but thats a completely different story.
Creepiness – During all of my recordings, I always had feeling that I was stalking someone. It really is strange to think that someone is watching the way you browse their page (isn’t it). To me this seems like a small invasion of privacy. It will be interesting to see how this aspect is dealt with when TapeFailure goes live.
Overall – I think TapeFailure’s greatest use will be in optimizing forms, you will actually be able to see where users decided to quit going through with the form as well as where they hesitated. The ability to streamline your forms in this fashion will be a great advantage, as it takes simple a/b testing to the next level.
I look forward to seeing the final product as I am sure many of you are.
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Hello,
I saw your review of our service, Tapefailure, and had a couple of questions/comments:
1. What issues are you having with the statistics page?
2. Playback Tools: Besides a speed up/slow down option (which is in the works), what other tools do you think would be valuable?
3. Record Entire Visit: This is already possible; you just need to place the Tapefailure include on every page you would like tracked (use only a single tracker identifier throughout the site).
4. Privacy: This is something that is being looked into, in terms of protecting the user’s privacy, but we are taking a strong stand against distributing the collected data to anyone besides the account holder and us (for support purposes only).
5. Do you have any other suggestions or questions?
I would be very interested to hear your answers/responses to these questions as, during this beta period, we are looking to improve the site as much as possible so it is the best it can be at launch.
Regards,
Joshua Gross
Tapefailure Founder
Great writeup, Nick. I’ve tested it out and I agree with all your points.
It’s a private beta so I’m sure (or at least I hope) they’re working on all these issues. It should be a good service if they listen to feedback from their beta testers.
Joshua,
Thanks for the quick reply. First off, I want to reaffirm that your product is very innovative and has some amazing applications when it comes optimizing web forms and ad placement.
1. Regarding the statistics page, I was having an error with both the user focus and the path cluster. Both were displaying blank pages or an image one pixel wide. Not sure what’s going on there.
2. I would be most worried about the replay screen size, it should be quite a bit larger, and besides that nothing comes to mind.
3. I will play with the record the entire visit; I couldn’t find a replay out of about 30 that went to multiple pages. If multiple pages are recorded are they shown on separate videos? If so I think they should be tied into one, to make it seem linear.
4. One concern is that if this was used on confidential information. I noticed that the site is not encrypted, are there any plans to do this? Also, I would be wary of allowing people to download the videos after beta, this could just make things more complicated.
5. Not a big deal, but revised the colors of the graphs to be more drastic shade changes, will make it easier to read.
Great product overall. I look forward to seeing it once it is released. I think this could be a must have tool for anyone trying to optimize forms and ad placement.
Regards,
Nick
Anything that has to do with taking away from the Google God I’m all for it. I hope they get the kinks worked out and it gets to me fast and ready to blow Google out of business. Probably never going to happen but we all have to be optimistic. Take care