The studio

Why we exist

Farah Idris spent years sitting beside support staff in Penang who already knew the awkward screens. The reports they received from elsewhere listed percentages without a single timestamp. She opened this studio so a team could hand over a sample and get sentences back: which field, which minute, which exit.

We still work that way. The brand name is a leftover from a shared workroom; the work is session analytics, done by people in a room with the blinds half down so the screen can be seen.

How we work

We read in pairs when the sample is large. One person keeps the clock; the other writes only what is visible. Arguments about motive wait until the memo, and even then we prefer questions. Clients sit in on a clarification call, not on the first pass — talking during a first pass ruins the log.

Malaysia’s mix of languages shows up constantly in sessions: a keyboard that flips, an address written in the wrong field, a help article that opens in English while the rest of the app is in Malay. Arun watches for that specifically.

People

Farah Idris

Leads the reading and writes the findings memo. Trained in research methods at Universiti Sains Malaysia, then spent a decade in support floors rather than in lecture halls.

Lim Jia Wen

Keeps the sample lock. If a clip arrives late, it goes to the parking lot. She also checks every timestamp in the appendix before a memo leaves the floor.

Arun Nair

Marks language switches, keyboard layout changes, and address formats. Joins studies where the app speaks more than one language in a single visit.

Values we will not trade

• A sample is frozen or it is not a sample.
• A pause is a pause until there is more.
• Files leave the studio only as the agreed memo and appendix.
• We name testers when we recognise them, then drop those clips.

Community

We take a limited number of studies at once. When a university research methods class in George Town asks to visit, we show a redacted log, not a client app. That is the whole public programme.