I’ve decided to put together a list of the top 5 features that are important to me when watching a screencast demo:
1. Speak to me! There are so many demos out there that have no audio. Sure they have pop-up text boxes but that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. As a matter of fact, when I am reading something normally I don’t even give it my full attention. My mind tends to wander and I easily lose interest. People also speak differently internally, so they may not even get the point of what you are trying to say, because you’re not saying anything.
2. Don’t make me break out my magnifying glass! Please, please, I beg you, if you’re going to go through all the trouble to make a screencast, make sure it’s big enough so I can see what you’re talking, or not talking, about. Those screencasts uploaded onto youtube are so hard to see, so normally I just sigh and go back to filing my nails or taking the curlers out of my hair.
3. If you are using audio, don’t make me listen to you hock up your morning flemwad. If you’re using some kind of software to create your demos, most likely there are a ton of editing tools. If you feel the need to say “uuuuhhhh” after every sentence, or you occasionally have to clear your throat that’s fine. Just use the editing tools to cut those “personal” moments out. There is also a lot you can do to cut down the length of your demos just by editing out any “wait” time while different pages are loading. (This can also make your website seem super fast!)
4. If you can’t explain it to grandma, you have no business explaining it to the millions of users you hope to get. If you created this application then you are going to know it inside and out. This can become a problem if you are trying to make a demo tutorial that is aimed at making your service easy to use by even the newest of the newbies. Some people are just not good at simple explanation. You don’t want your service to be used only by tech-heads do you? Try finding someone, like a friend or co-worker, to do the demo for you. Make sure that they know the key features but most important, make sure they speak in a language that isn’t going to make anyone feel stupid. (You could even ask me to do it for you!)
5. Now where is that screencast demo I heard about? Put that sucker right on your front page! Instead of people trying to figure out if they have to give out their email and password in order to use your service, let them be greeted by your demo right there and all they have to do is press play. If they see how your service works before looking at anything else on your site, they may think “WOW!” and then be less annoyed at the fact that they have to try and figure out if the “S” in the verification code is supposed to be capitalized or not. Also, this kind of goes with #3, make sure the person talking on your demo sounds warm and welcoming. (Have a kid listen to it first. They are always honest and will tell you if you sound like the boogie man.)
Here are some links to some screencast demos that I think are great. Watch and learn. (No, I didn’t put any of my own screencasts up here. Now’s the time for someone else to shine!)
This tour is for wesabe which is a money management tool. I wish it was a little less fuzzy, but Debbie does a great job of pointing out the key features and she has a great voice. (She kind of sounds like MarisaTomei in “My cousin Vinny”)
This next one is for yackpack. Yackpack is a service that allows you to record and share audio messages with groups of people. This kind of proves one of my points, that an actual human voice is key for getting a point across. They use the same software I do to make my screencasts. I did have to click on two different links to find their screencast demo. They do, however, have a link to a screenshot tour right on the front page. I wonder why they’re hiding the good stuff?
