Show taps for mobile screensharing (user research)

[thisisnatalie]

User research teams (mine included) love using Zoom since it's an app many users are familiar with (thanks, Covid-19). One of the biggest limitations, however, is that during moderated mobile usability testing, researchers and observers are unable to tell where a user is tapping on mobile screenshares. That means sometimes we miss how users got to a page, or we can't tell if users are trying to tap an element that isn't supposed to be interactive.

Would love if Zoom  either automatically showed screen taps during mobile screenshares or implemented an easy option to turn on taps.

(I'm aware Android and iOS have different "show taps" options in Settings, and that there are other tools besides Zoom that show taps, but the goal is try to keep it as easy as possible for the user so being able to stay in Zoom would be great.)

[RN]

Hey @thisisnatalie, love this idea! 🤩 If you don't mind sending this to zoom.us/feed. Thanks! 

However, I am on iOS and you could leverage the Gestures for showing taps. I came crossed this on 'How To Show Taps on an iPhone — iOS 14", this may help you out if you have a mouse which would be super handy!

If not, you could also create a custom gesture, you can also check out 'How to Show Touch/Tap Sign While Recording the Screen of you iOS Devices' which I did test on my own device and was able to get a pointer while sharing my screen in a meeting! 

You can also change the pointer settings here within your iOS settings. 

For Android users, you can checkout 'Enabling ‘show touches’ in Android screen recordings for user research' which is another great guide, however, I have not tested this out. 

I hope you can check out these tips and tricks and leverage them in your Meetings! And hope to see a 'show taps' feature in the near future! 

[thisisnatalie]

Will do, thanks!

[thisisnatalie]

@RN Ah, I see you edited your comment to add instructions for iOS and Android. I'm aware of these options, but walking users through these steps (both at the beginning and, to be respectful, at the end of sessions) adds a lot of time to usability tests. The goal is to try to keep set-up as simple as possible for both the user and moderator in order to spend more time on the actual usability test. I sent the request over through zoom.us/feed. Thanks for sharing the link.