Ask HN: Good usability service?

[yeti]

I'm a fan of usertesting.com but their already expensive prices are about to rise 35% in one weeks time. Too expensive for this startup.

Any other more cost effective alternatives.

ps - already use Feedback Army for quick first impression stuff, am looking for a service to capture first 15 minute user activity - screen-recording and audio comments

[scorchin]

Why not have a go yourself?

If you have a Mac laptop, you've got yourself a mobile usability station. Just get a copy of Silverback App ( http://silverbackapp.com/ ) and start usability testing!

Following on from that, if you'd like to make the most of your usability tests I'd recommend getting "Rocket Surgery Made Easy" by Steve Krug which will run you through the general process: http://www.sensible.com/rocketsurgery/index.html

[yeti]

Our development is in another country from where all our users are (the US)

So we need to use a remote usability service as its not easy for us to easily recruit people and run the test ourselves. But thanks for the reply :)

[yeti]

Is there really nothing else?