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Cubicle-Friendly Videos?

Obviously, videos are one of the hottest topics in technical communications today. But there is one issue with videos in technical content that I don't see being discussed. How do you make cubicle-friendly videos?

If Dante were alive today, he would clearly add a special circle of hell for people who include auto-play sounds and video in web pages. That is the very definition of cubicle-unfriendly.

But even embedded video that you have to click on to play present something of a problem. I still have to dig for the headphones and plug them in before I watch.

So what is the solution? Silent videos? Clearly marking the videos that have sound and those that do not? Closed-captioning of videos for those working in cubicles?

Has anyone tackled these issues? Do you have any evidence on whether your audience cares about this issue (maybe it's just me?). What solutions have you found?

Tags: cublicle, sound, video

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Archer on August 1, 2011 at 10:06pm

As a user, if I could have everything I wanted, I'd want the option up front to view content with sound (slightly better experience that will reward me for reaching for those headphones) or without sound (slightly inferior experience that still gets it done).

The tradeoff between the two based on that alone seems negligible, however. For my part, I prefer eLearning mostly without sound because I can absorb it twice as fast if I read the words for myself. The auditory learners among us might feel differently, though.

Practically speaking, we've stayed away from voicing our computer based training modules because we have a very agile product and it would increase the difficulty of updating it. I'm not aware of any complaints from our end users when we started with voice and then scaled back.

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Permalink Reply by Axel Regnet on August 2, 2011 at 1:30am

I am happy I am not alone with this problem. I agree with Daniel: though it would be nice to have it all, I usually prefer to go without the sound. Even though some customers already asked if there was something wrong (must be my fault - I have to make it more clear that it´s a silent movie) I opt for the solution that most people can use.

And as Daniel already pointed out: you can watch the video faster if you want to and it is obviously easier to update.

And I do not have to spend a lot of money for a professional speaker. As a matter of fact, if I do the talk on the video it will not exactly emphasize professional impression of you company ;-)

So, if you have the production values and good speakers at hand, go for the sound. If you have to produce fast for the broadest possible audience, do the silent movie.