[General] Call for feedback on Chandler demo movies

[Mimi Yin]

Forwarding feedback re: Chandler demo movies

See replies in-line:

Begin forwarded message:
> From: Sean Aquino <sean at lpfi.org>
> Date: August 21, 2007 9:38:09 AM PDT
> To: Mimi Yin <mimi at osafoundation.org>
> Subject: Re: [kei - whole office] Call for feedback on Chandler  
> demo movies
>
> Hi Mimi,
>
> I watched the first three, overall they seem fine.  Here are a  
> couple of things that I noticed:
>
> exp-navigation: there's a doubling of audio tracks during the ppd  
> section.  Audio has a lot of background noise also no music.  Using  
> a sample node and showing how it displays in the different sections  
> might make the navigation easier to understand and remember.

Ah, ok I will look into that.

>
> exp-smorgasbord- like that examples are used makes it more  
> digestible than just a walk through of sections, audio is clearer
>
> exp stamping- first section over the title was hard to understand  
> with the background music and without a visual. the 'jot down a  
> note' item was already in place when the example started, might be  
> good if the item was created (gives focus to that item) and then is  
> moved around.

I'm not sure I'm following. Is it a matter of having the voice  
explanation come before the demo in the movie?

> Sean Aquino
> Creative and Technical Associate- Level Playing Field Institute
>

Begin forwarded message:
> From: D John Anderson <john at osafoundation.org>
> Date: August 21, 2007 10:23:03 AM PDT
> To: Mimi Yin <mimi at osafoundation.org>
> Cc: wholeoffice at kkie.us
> Subject: Re: [kei - whole office] Call for feedback on Chandler  
> demo movies
>
> Hi:
>
> I looked at just the first video, Exp_Navigation-FS.mov, and had  
> the following comments:
>
> The launch page https://designdav.osafoundation.org/Screencasts/   
> is a bit sparse. Are you going to have an html landing page  
> welcoming users and giving some description about each of the movies?

Yes, that's just a  link to where the movies are stored. It's not  
going to be the demo launch page. The demos will be accessed from the  
Features page which is what you land on if you click on the image  
blob on the landing page.

>
> We should probably publish the videos in a more common format that  
> doesn't require downloading a viewer since the majority of our  
> potential users aren't on Macintosh and won't take the time to  
> install Quicktime. I suspect whatever application you're using has  
> a variety of format output options.
>
> In the same vein, the movie size of  51Mb, is going to be too big  
> for most customers  and we'll probably lose people even with a  
> 1.5Mbps DSL because the movies are too slow to download. Again, I  
> suspect your app has options for encoding output at a lower  
> resolution/size that, with this type of video, shouldn't lose any  
> quality.

Yes, Bear has this task.

> As for content, the presentation looks slick, but I think we need  
> more context for new users to understand some of the Chandler  
> specific terms and concepts you present. In the "Navigate" section,  
> for example, the explanation of the "application areas" and  
> "collections you define" doesn't include enough explanation to know  
> what they are.

I agree re: providing more context. Do you have something specific in  
mind? What additional context would you provide?

> The "Dashboard and the All Application" section is also missing  
> context that will leave people confused. For example, it's not  
> clear  what the Peepeedee collection is and why it's named that. It  
> would be better to give it a more obvious name or include  
> explanation about why it's called Peepeedee.

Does it matter what the name of a collection is? It could be Daisy or  
ipsem lorem. I'm not sure that the 'content' of the collections  
matters. What's important is the mechanism / feature being explained:  
This is a collection. It contains items.

>
> This section has an audio glitch with two voices overlaid.

Yup, I'll look into that.

>  Changing the color of the calendar in this section seems  
> tangential and didn't have any explanation. Perhaps leave it out  
> and include that feature in another movie about the calendar.

Currently, I'm not planning on doing a separate movie about  
calendaring for Preview. I agree it's a bit random. I can get rid of  
it, but I don't know that it does a lot of harm.

>
> There are a few timing issues, for example the "dead air" after  
> descriptions is a bit disorienting and should be shortened.

I'm not sure how I would go about doing that (easily) without cutting  
out demo content and/or adding in unnecessary, extra voice text to  
fill in the dead-space. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're saying?

> And the ending of the movie is too abrupt. Can you  fade it out?

Not easily using Quicktime Pro, which was the only tool I could find  
that didn't horrible degrade the quality of the video.

>
> As I think about how best to explain Chandler and get people  
> excited about it, I think it might be better to focus on a few  
> common simple tasks that everyone has experienced and that other  
> applications have trouble with. Show people how you would do the  
> tasks in Chandler -- and along the way introduce Chandler specific  
> jargon, e.g. Dashboard, the All Collection, etc. in a context that  
> they are more familiar with.

Currently the task-workflows I have are:
+ Navigating around Chandler
+ Creating new items in a collection
+ Sending out an invite with stamping
+ Triaging and Tickling items
+ Sharing via the Hub

Did you have a different set of workflows in mind? Or perhaps it's  
just a matter of making it the workflows clear with good titles on  
the Features page?

>
> Finally, I was curious to know what application you used to create  
> the movies?

I created the movies with SnapZ Pro and edited them in Quicktime Pro.  
The music I put together in Garage Band and the voice I recorded in  
Quicktime Pro.

I wouldn't recommend Quicktime Pro for editing movies, but it was the  
only tool I could find that didn't turn screecast movie files in DV,  
which makes it look horrible.

> John


Begin forwarded message:
> From: Reid Ellis <rae at osafoundation.org>
> Date: August 21, 2007 10:32:58 AM PDT
> To: Mimi Yin <mimi at osafoundation.org>
> Subject: Re: [kei - whole office] Call for feedback on Chandler  
> demo movies
>
> Hi Mimi,
>
> The sound on the Exp_Navigation screencast is not very good. The  
> voice is low and gets mudddled with the background noise (cottage  
> country?).

I'll take a look at improving this.

>
> The music in Exp_Smorgasbord-QE.mov is good, but the voice level  
> should be raised, it's too quiet.
>
> I think in general the voice (yours?) should be raised in volume.  
> If you mail me the voice files I can up the levels for you.

The voice is embedded in the movie. It's been sliced up into a  
bazillion little 2-12 second snippets so that it can line up with the  
action in the demo. I can amp up the sound in quicktime pro for the  
voice tracks. But when I export it, the volume settings are lost. I  
will play around with this more and ask around for help.

>
> Reid



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