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Subject:what's the current trend? From:Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 19 Oct 2015 07:36:04 -0700
There are many ways to learn, and we can't discount the portion of our
customers who can't sit through long documents. I fall somewhere in the
middle. I hate long documents, but I prefer the text steps rather than a
video.
Text-only requires a lot of words to describe something complex. A
well-illustrated procedure is a great reference. A short,
well-executed video, is a great introduction to a complex task. This is
where we would experience the time savings.
Of course, content has to be really well done. Nothing is more grating than
a long video that takes us nowhere. But the fact is people are reading less
and watching more. Within 2 minutes a person knows if they have received
what they need or not.
So I wouldn't recommend an all-or-nothing approach. People aren't reading
documents because they're badly written and don't give them the information
they want. If you improve the documentation then video may not be required.
But, if you find your verbiage increases your page count exponentially,
consider a series of short videos. You're not making a TED talk: you're
producing a helping hand.
-Tony
On Monday, 19 October 2015, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> wrote:
> How do videos save time? I find the opposite. It often takes a long
> time to find the bit that I need. Sometimes I sit through the whole
> thing only to find it doesn't tell me what I need to know. Once in a
> long while a video is helpful for demonstrating a procedure that 's
> hard to put into words.
>
> In my experience, when a product's written documentation is useless,
> the videos are usually witless time-wasters as well.
>
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 4:31 AM, Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca> wrote:
> > ... as our users are time-challenged to read consistently
> > useless documentation, a video really does give the best experience.
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