I'm an anti-video extremist when it comes to professional stuff. I just don't have the patience at all. If I'm looking for some info, like "how do I do X", my time budget is measured in seconds. But I might not be average with this. I also have some PTSD about all those cases when I thought I found and clicked some potentially interesting video content, just to notice that the amount of in-front ad content is way too much if I weigh it against the potential value of the content. I know you can turn ads off for the videos you create, but ads still have this effect of making me prefer video content even less against text options.
Like you, I tried to bring up examples of videos I sometimes watch, and are not about work. I think that in politics the "key moment clip" works there because they can tear out a single sentence like "Harris / Trump will win because X", or just something unexpected somebody said, and everybody understands it. It may pique their interest too. I sometimes watch videos about cycling gear for example. It's the same, they might be able to say two sentences in the beginning to pick my interest about a bike or bike computer.
A tutorial is not like that. If I just want to find out about a single very well defined bit I'm missing to be able to achieve something, then I probably won't be looking for tutorial videos but something text based. For example, one thing that even memoq pros struggle with (I guess), is which part of the ribbon contains the damn command you are looking for. It can get comical. I just want to know where the thing is, and a video tutorial is maybe not the best form. :) Maybe I would be willing to watch a tutorial video if it promised me to help me build a mental model so that I don't struggle anymore with finding stuff on the ribbon?
I do coding somewhat regularly nowadays, and https://stackoverflow.com/ is very successful in that field. I just search google for my problem. (I don't need to search inside SO, the hits always come out at the top for coding questions in Google, it is that successful.) I see a potential question that might be about my problem. I click it. I spend a couple of seconds reading the question to try and identify if it is about my problem. If the question is about my problem, I spend another couple of seconds to scan the top answers to try and find out if I can apply them. If the answer seems to be yes, then I'm willing to invest more time.
I know exactly what you mean about video ads. That's why I started posting such content on Substack. No ads, and I have more control over addenda that may be helpful.
And I am often in that situation you describe of just wanting to find the damned menu command. I think typically that would be shown in the first seconds of a preview clip front loaded before the full tutorial.
Hi Kevin,
I'm an anti-video extremist when it comes to professional stuff. I just don't have the patience at all. If I'm looking for some info, like "how do I do X", my time budget is measured in seconds. But I might not be average with this. I also have some PTSD about all those cases when I thought I found and clicked some potentially interesting video content, just to notice that the amount of in-front ad content is way too much if I weigh it against the potential value of the content. I know you can turn ads off for the videos you create, but ads still have this effect of making me prefer video content even less against text options.
Like you, I tried to bring up examples of videos I sometimes watch, and are not about work. I think that in politics the "key moment clip" works there because they can tear out a single sentence like "Harris / Trump will win because X", or just something unexpected somebody said, and everybody understands it. It may pique their interest too. I sometimes watch videos about cycling gear for example. It's the same, they might be able to say two sentences in the beginning to pick my interest about a bike or bike computer.
A tutorial is not like that. If I just want to find out about a single very well defined bit I'm missing to be able to achieve something, then I probably won't be looking for tutorial videos but something text based. For example, one thing that even memoq pros struggle with (I guess), is which part of the ribbon contains the damn command you are looking for. It can get comical. I just want to know where the thing is, and a video tutorial is maybe not the best form. :) Maybe I would be willing to watch a tutorial video if it promised me to help me build a mental model so that I don't struggle anymore with finding stuff on the ribbon?
I do coding somewhat regularly nowadays, and https://stackoverflow.com/ is very successful in that field. I just search google for my problem. (I don't need to search inside SO, the hits always come out at the top for coding questions in Google, it is that successful.) I see a potential question that might be about my problem. I click it. I spend a couple of seconds reading the question to try and identify if it is about my problem. If the question is about my problem, I spend another couple of seconds to scan the top answers to try and find out if I can apply them. If the answer seems to be yes, then I'm willing to invest more time.
I know exactly what you mean about video ads. That's why I started posting such content on Substack. No ads, and I have more control over addenda that may be helpful.
And I am often in that situation you describe of just wanting to find the damned menu command. I think typically that would be shown in the first seconds of a preview clip front loaded before the full tutorial.