[General] Call for feedback on Chandler demo movies

[Ted Leung]

Hi Mimi,

I took a look at the screen casts in order, and John has covered many  
of the things that I would have said.   Making sure that we define  
any terminology that might be unfamiliar is important.  Specific  
terms that I would be sure to define are collection, application  
area, and triage.  In Smorgasbord, I think there needs to be a little  
more of a tie between drafts and things that people might already be  
familiar with.

I understand the rationale for putting the navigation stuff first,  
but it didn't seem to work well for me.  I was wondering if doing  
Smorgasbord or Stamping first might be clearer.

I think that the screencasts would be much stronger if there was a  
little more of a scenario that showed how the various features of  
Chandler are used.   I recognize that this would require a bunch more  
work, and that there might not be time to do it.

I'm assuming that the voiceover for the Sharing movie is on the way.

As far as the production values go, the background audio in  
Navigation was pretty distracting - you don't have to do music, but  
reducing the noise somehow would help.   In both Smorgasbord and  
Triage,  some of the pauses seem a bit too long to me.

Ted

On Aug 21, 2007, at 2:36 PM, D John Anderson wrote:

> On Aug 21, 2007, at 11:21 AM, Mimi Yin wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>> 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?
>>
>
> Well, this is the "meat of the task" that whoever does this project  
> must spend time figuring out. But here are two examples that come  
> to mind:
>
> I wouldn't use the term "collection" without first explaining it in  
> the context that your typical computer user would understand. For  
> example, you could show a list of tasks and mention that they are  
> all grouped together into what we call a "collection", much like  
> files are grouped into a directory or folder. Notice that we call  
> our collection "Work Tasks" and that it's displayed in this left  
> hand panel which we call the "Sidebar". Like directories and files  
> we have collections and items. You can have many different  
> collection each containing different kinds of items, for example:  
> calendar events, tasks, emails, etc.
>
> Introduce the term "application area" with a example everyone can  
> relate to: You have lots of different kinds of items you deal with  
> on a regular basis: emails, tasks, notes. It's really useful to see  
> them all at once or maybe just the emails or just the tasks. In  
> Chandler this is easy to do. The Dashboard collection shows you all  
> your items in a special view we call the Dashboard that lets you  
> easily sort by time, title of the task, etc. In this example you'll  
> notice that there are so many items it's hard to focus on just your  
> email messages. If you choose the "Mail Application" area Chandler  
> filters out everything except for your email messages. Notice that  
> when we choose the Calendar application area, Chandler  
> automatically displays just your events in a calendar view.
>
> This kind of context often isn't obvious to us because we are so  
> close the the project. I find it really useful to do "dry runs" of  
> my demos on friends, co-workers and relatives before sitting down  
> to produce them. That usually makes it really obvious where I'm  
> making mistakes in assumptions about what people know.
>
> If, after a 30 second demo with someone unfamiliar with your  
> project you notice the light bulb going off in their head, they  
> "get it", and seem excited, then your demo will be a success. It  
> usually takes more iterations to get it right that you think, but  
> in the end the extra effort usually pays off.
>
>>
>>
>>> 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.
>>
>>
>
> Rather than using PeePeeDee as the example of a collection, use  
> something like "My Wedding Plans" (or something else people will be  
> able to relate to). Then when showing navigation, navigating  
> between collections that people can relate to makes it easier to  
> understand what is going on. The idea when demoing is to create a  
> world in your app that real user might have or can relate to. Then  
> demo that world.
>
>>>
>>> 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?
>>
>
> Normally you would do this by going to the timeline in your  
> particular app, e.g. Quicktime Pro or iMovie, select the area that  
> contains no voice and no useful demo and choose delete.
>
>>
>>
>>> 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.
>>
>>
>
> I'd try exporting from Quicktime to iMovie and doing the fades  
> there. If that doesn't work, let me know and I can find out for  
> sure. Also iMovie lets you export to MPEG-4, which might be a good  
> choice for final viewing.
>
>>>
>>> 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?
>>
>>
>
> I'd choose examples motivated not by Chandler features, e.g.  
> navigation, creating items, etc. but examples motivated by real  
> world tasks, e.g. planning a trip to France, collaborating with  
> another person on a shared project. First explain the project in a  
> context outside of Chandler then give specific examples of how you  
> would accomplish the task in Chandler. Also, choose tasks/features  
> that illustrate Chandler's strengths over other products.
>
>>>
>>> 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.
>>
>>
>
> The choice of which applications to use is pretty important, not  
> very obvious, and takes lots of time to figure out. For example,  
> SnapZ Pro lets you do screenshots, but doesn't let you edit them  
> like Quicktime Pro. And Quicktime Pro doesn't let you easily do  
> fades. Some apps like Adobe Captivate claim to do it all, but run  
> only on Windows and you may end up with only one style of text  
> balloon that you may not like. The best way to learn this is to get  
> get to know people who have lots of experience building  
> professional demos and ask lots of questions. I have some friends  
> who would probably be happy to help out with free advice and  
> answers if you're interested.
>
> Finally, in the first movie I didn't hear any music.
>
> John
>
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