Today's contact
began with watching a series of videos, each about a specific product.
For each video we
were to answer the following questions:
First
Impression (good or bad)
Can
you really understand the concept?
What
questions does it raise?
What
could they do better?
What
do they do well?
Is
there a better way to show certain things?
Quality
of the video? Audio?
Video 1 - Brisbane
Parkfinder: This video consisted of a man standing in front of the camera and
talking about a product that could find parks in and around Brisbane. My first
impression wasn't that good, the majority of the video was static and didn't deviate
much from the talking man as the focus. The questions it raised included things
like what is the real form of the Brisbane Parkfinder? Is it a website app (I
assume because there were a few screenshots of it on a web page). Does it have
GPS tracking for when you are walking around Brisbane?
They could have
improved the video by actually showing the Brisbane Parkfinder in action, being
used by several people, (e.g: walking around Brisbane with a tablet, referring
to the Brisbane Parkfinder as they travelled around Brisbane), rather than have
a man standing in front of the camera talking and having only occasional
screenshots of the Parkfinder. The talking could have been supplemented with
change-of-focus to images that directly reflected to what the man was talking
at that point in time.
What they did well
was illustrate the basic concept of what their product is, and that it was a
poorly created video. The audio quality wasn't that great either, as there was
significant background noise, and no other background music to offer a little variety.
Video 2 - Plain
English Google Docs: Illustrating the concept of Google Docs through movement
of interactive paper cutouts.
My first impression
was that this was a well thought out video. It illustrated several concepts of
Google Docs (versions of documents, differences between Docs and Email,
multiple computers and sharing between people), quite visually, using paper
cutouts. Questions it does raise include while the paper demonstration was very
handy, what does the actual interface on computer actually look like? There
were lots of concepts floating around, but not so much on the actual Google
Docs interface. So adding in just a few mockups on computer could have been
handy. Paper cutouts are relatively easy to prepare, and illustrated the
concept effectively in its basic form. The video and audio quality were quite
good.
Video 3 - Pegasus:
Video shows a demo of the board game (?) Pegasus. My first impression of this
video was that it was very confusing. Besides just showing the name of the game
at the start, the rest of the video was an extended playthrough of two players
playing through a game of Pegasus. As the video continued, the biggest question
I had was HOW DO I PLAY THIS GAME? What are the specific rules? Although the
game began with a square grid and the two players placing black and white
squares, sometimes weird cross shapes would appear, and I'd be wondering, what
does that mean? What kind of move allows you to place those kinds of shapes? A
better way of illustrating what Pegasus is, is to have the playthrough running,
but stop/slow down at specific points where something different happens and
requires explanation, this allows the audience to gradually build up an
understanding of how to play Pegasus as the video continues. Towards the end,
the video felt too frustrating to watch, as the game continued with no change.
The background music
was relaxing and fairly suitable. The Pegasus board graphics were simple but
clean.
Video 4 - FormLabs
3D Printer: This video I personally found really well made. The talking from
several different people, each offering a piece of the explanation, was
complemented by sweeping camera views of the 3D printer, sculptures and
objects, design and collaboration process, and the people talking. Unlike Video
1, which featured a single person talking with relatively static video footage,
this video felt dynamic, slowly revealing piece by piece, just what this 3D
printer concept that FormLabs was creating, and towards the end revealing, that
it was time for them to bring their idea to life and start manufacturing,
reflecting their purpose of their Kickstarter page, in that they needed
funding. The music was quite relaxing as well. Overall, they illustrated their
purpose and intent very clearly, backed up with engaging content in their
promotional video.
Afternote: Later on,
I went and visited the Kickstarter pages for the last two videos. The Pegasus
project reached nowhere near its $300,000 goal, while the FORM 1 3D Printer,
received massive support and easily exceeded its goal tenfold. The video could
be a significant reason why the Pegasus Kickstarter failed as much as the
FormLabs Kickstarter succeeded.
Overall these
questions and examples will help significantly in creating and evaluating my
own video for my prototype due next Wednesday (20 August).
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