> If the user is consenting to a usability study, it's not really an invasion of privacy.
I fully disagree. Consenting to a usability study means I want to provide feedback and actively state what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and what I didn't expect.
It does not mean I want you to see what I do, where I leave my mouse, what I click on, what input I type -- and what input I then delete. If I wanted that then I would take screenshots or a video and share that.
Disclaimer: I'm not an UX designer/analyst, but I've worked with people from the field closely.
> I fully disagree. Consenting to a usability study means I want to provide feedback and actively state what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and what I didn't expect.
This is fine for an UX study that conducts in-person interviews as _one_ of the methods. This method is almost useless on its own, mostly because people behave differently when they know they're being observed (eg they do things in a more "optimal way" in order to avoid looking stupid in front of the person conducting the study).
Also, while active feedback is valuable, it can be harder to interpret. People say A, but mean B and then do something between A and B or just do C. Not because they're malicious, but because that was what came to mind when they tried to express something or just didn't know better, so there's an unintentional misalignment between intent, action, and what was expressed.
> It does not mean I want you to see what I do, where I leave my mouse, what I click on, what input I type -- and what input I then delete. If I wanted that then I would take screenshots or a video and share that.
This is exactly the type of thing you (as a designer) _want_ to know in order to identify friction and remove it. Obviously, you track what the user types only under certain conditions. An example would be, a number input: do user always type the same/similar values or increments of some values (isolated per user), should the input offer pre-defined incementors or buttons that just fill-and-submit it instantly (you'd do AB tests to see which work better then), etc.
I fully understand your concern about privacy, but not everything is run by reprobates who sell user's data. Sometimes "observing" is the best/easiest way to learn how to improve a user's experience.
So long as the methods of the study are fully-disclosed there is no issue here, and no invasion of privacy.
You would prefer not to participate in such a study, and that is perfectly fair.
That doesn't mean its an ineffective method for observing how users interact with software.
I've been surprised many times with (in-person) usability studies where we ask users to perform certain tasks with the tool. It's a great way to improve UX.
I fully disagree. Consenting to a usability study means I want to provide feedback and actively state what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and what I didn't expect.
It does not mean I want you to see what I do, where I leave my mouse, what I click on, what input I type -- and what input I then delete. If I wanted that then I would take screenshots or a video and share that.