

Ask HN: What can I improve in this demo video? - melvinram
http://blog.brainbankhq.com/2009/02/18/creating-a-video-demo-screencast/

======
TomOfTTB
My thoughts (with the obvious grain of salt)...

The background sound is distracting

When you first create the course you copy and paste the info in. I've found
this can be confusing to users (though I don't know why). I'd put in a small
part that says "I've prewritten this text and am just going to copy it in to
save time". It just spells it out for the user and lets them know they aren't
missing anything (You do it perfectly during the "creating a lesson" part, I'd
just move that up to the beginning)

At :48 you move forward only to move back. I've found that it's best to stay
linear with the steps. Don't move back and fourth. Refer back later if you
have to but when people are watching a demo they expect to see it step by step
not jumping all around.

Again, when you add the remaining lessons I'd personally put a hard pause. So
say something like "I'm going to pause the video for a second to add the rest
of the lessons"

Overall I'd slow down the whole presentation and ditch the recap at the end.
It's a video that people can rewind so they don't need a recap. At the same
time you do speed through a lot of the demo (you have to on some level sense
this since you felt the need for a recap to begin with).

Anyway, hope it helps

~~~
melvinram
Thanks Tom. I appreciate the feedback.

>> When you first create the course you copy and paste the info in. I've found
this can be confusing to user

Makes sense. I'll make this clearer in the next version.

>> At :48 you move forward only to move back. I've found that it's best to
stay linear with the steps.

Agreed. No argument there. I would have changed it but it would have held me
back other day so I just ran with what I had.

>> Again, when you add the remaining lessons I'd personally put a hard pause.
So say something like "I'm going to pause the video for a second to add the
rest of the lessons"

Good idea. I'll add in the next version.

>> Overall I'd slow down the whole presentation and ditch the recap at the
end.

It does take up about a minute and a half so maybe you're right. I'm not
entire convinced since I feel like I'm showing them so much that I need to
recap... but maybe that's the problem. Maybe I'm showing too much... or too
much detail. I'll sleep on this one.

------
hotpockets
I thought the narrator audio was a little weird. I can't put my finger on it
but I think it was more than just the narrators syncopation. Some words were
hard to hear - I could make everything out, but I found myself distracted by
it every once in a while. It might be an issue with compression or editing or
being too far from the mic occasionally.

Also, I didn't know anything about your site before I viewed it. The video
helped but I still don't know why someone would create a lesson. The end
mentions something about "client acquisition" but I have no idea what that
means. I assume the lesson creator wants to get email addresses of people so
they can try to sell them something? Personally I think you should consider
letting people sell complete lessons, rather than posting crippled lessons
that require the lesson-master to try to hawk products through email.

~~~
melvinram
>> Also, I didn't know anything about your site before >> I viewed it. The
video helped but I still don't know >> why someone would create a lesson.

Good point. It's a tough decision on where to keep the focus: the what or the
why. For this video I decided to focus on the what... but thanks for bringing
that up.

I need to decide whether to weave the what & why together or have them be
different videos. Any thoughts?

>> Personally I think you should consider letting >> people sell complete
lessons, rather than posting >> crippled lessons that require the lesson-
master >> to try to hawk products through email.

That's where BrainBank is going. We're going to give content author's the
ability to sell single courses or offer a subscription for all their content,
similar to Aaron Wall's SEO Training system.

~~~
hotpockets
Hmmm, perhaps if you can explain the why real quickly in the beginning of the
video. It sounds like a fairly simple concept that could be explained in a few
sentences.

"Brainbank lets you post short online classes. Then when a customer downloads
your lessons we'll send you the lead. Here's how to create a lesson"

------
melvinram
Do you think this video is clear (message wise)? Is it too long? Boring? Does
the background sound add to the video or is it a distraction?

~~~
sobriquet
Feels too long. After about a minute I got the point and skipped to the end.
The site seems easy to use, so I don't think you need such detail. If users
are having trouble learning how to use the product, consider splitting up the
demos into multiple videos so I can watch short segments.

The script felt very wordy. The words and screencast should compliment each
other, but they felt very duplicitous here. I'd cut out 30% of the voice over,
allowing the video to get the point across. My favorite resource for learning
how to be concise is "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser. Check it out.

~~~
melvinram
I'll check it out. Thanks!

