A few of the hundreds of things we've learned by interviewing and observing customers use TechSmith products. Who is TechSmith? We're the people who make Snagit, Camtasia, Jing, Screencast.com, and Morae. www.techsmith.com

1. Photo credit: Daniel Novta UX Lessons& Myths A creation of TechSmith Corporation. You may use and distribute, with attribution.

3. the severity of the problem

5. Photo credit: freeloosedirt “I do not like green eggs & the Ribbon” Some user interface elements carry a stigma In Snagit 9 we added a "ribbon" style menu bar à la Microsoft Office. While many users thought they didn't like the ribbon because of its reputation, they were able to use it very efficiently.

6. Photo credit: Paul Schultz Dust off the shoebox Some behaviors translate from physical to digital experiences By watching users interact with physical images (printed on paper) we learned how to model their real-world needs, behaviors, and expectations for editing multiple images in Snagit 9.

7. The wonders of video In many of our products, like Jing and Camtasia Studio, we've learned that a simple video can do a lot to help users understand a product before trying it out. Photo credit: James Vaughan

8. Photo credit:Hillary Kladke What would we do without you? Users are helpful…You really love to help us help you! You’re generous with time, responses, feedback, and willingness to participate in our research. Thanks! …to a fault? Sometimes users are too nice. When unable to accomplish a task, they’ll often say that it was easy to do, even though we watched them struggle through it.

9. Myth #1People never right-click on Mac! Reality They do right-click...a lot. (This is no longer the advanced behavior it once was.) Photo credit: grey.beard.44

10. Myth #2People don't use file menus! Reality Not true. They're still the go-to place to look for something you can't easily find in front of you. Photo credit: grey.beard.44

11. Myth #3Red always means “stop” Reality The Snagit capture button proves this ain’t always so. Photo credit: grey.beard.44

12. Myth #4People want to do everything with the keyboard (yay hotkeys)! No, people prefer to use the mouse! Reality Turns out there are “two kinds of people...” Photo credit: grey.beard.44

13. Myth #5“Switching” from PC to Mac is hard. Reality Apple OS X offers a visual experience and standards across applications that can make their tools easy to explore and learn. Photo credit: grey.beard.44

14. Want to participate in a TechSmith UX study? click here: http://bit.ly/dRCU5F (everyone’s welcome!)