Video or written content? How do you prefer to read product help guides/documentation? 🛠
Neri Raanani
65 replies
You're trying out a new product and need some help, so you turn to the company's help center. Do you look for how-to videos or written instructions?
Replies
theakson@theakson
video augmented with lashings of REAL examples. My weekly routine s to pop over to Northwestern with a starbucks Pike's ( ok so I'm NOT HIP :-)) and crank up youtube to watch Talk Julia, Dj's office hours related to Julia and anything by Dave Beasley on Python. It educates and motivates me. I take notes using my shorthand ( thinking about making it a product), come up with a goal that can be put into a function (best way to approach julia), take a stab at it myself. Fail miserably and then seek out examples that can help me improve my approach. It's something I started in Palo Alto when I'd attend weekly presentations by home brewers. In those days SIR was Tom Perkins ( kpcb) so I'd keep an eye out for interesting things,approaches and people.
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@neri_raanani
Hi there
sorry I wasn't clear. I treat languages as a product. The videos serve to show me the utility of the language, it's tools, and show me worked examples to reinforce the concepts. The same is true of products, at least in my case.
So, my new answer to your question would be that I would prefer an overall video of the concepts married with a living set of examples that users have created that they found useful. This would all augment the written documentation. I would point out that I have made ALL the mistakes humanly possible in this area.
For detailed information I prefer written instructions over video. I tend to get bored by videos while text allows me to go to any section easily. Additionally most of the time I need to copy/paste samples or search for a specific topic.
For a presentation or features introduction, video is probably better.
You mentioned interesting scenarios, some of which I had not thought about and should be taken into consideration. Thank you for sharing!
I prefer both videos and written instructions. This allows me to understand as accurately as possible what the new product is like.
Demo videos for quick help and thorough product docs for deeper explanation
@dylan_merideth Hey, nice seeing you here too, i noticed you from indiehackers. Love the vapour wave aesthetic btw.
I prefer Video content.
I prefer the video! I find it more fun and faster
Both. Written content will probably give me more information, but a page with video content would be more interesting.
I prefer to watch if there is any how to videos rather than written content. But for more detailed information I'm looking at documents.
I'd take both of them.
Both? Haha it really depends on the topic. If it's a quick guide or questions answerable by 1 or two words/sentences, I'd go for text. But if it's more about technicality, I usually prefer video. But if it doesn't work, I resort to written content.
I think that's why both video and written content is important and a valuable factor for Google algorithm.
Both. Loom is great for doing short guides, and then doing a transcript (not word for word but a guide following the video) once you've recorded it is easy.
Then you have two pieces of content to publish instead of one :D
For me both. It depends on how my attention span is on the day. I like video for an overview if it's short and sweet.
It really depends on the complexity of the product! I generally prefer text describing steps with screenshots of the product's interface. But when I was figuring our Google Analytics back in the day, I was grateful to have video tutorials:)
I like video content.
Video content is always easy to understand and more appealing.
I prefer both. Video with written instructions
I prefer written instructions over video for detailed information. The text allows me to quickly jump to any area. Furthermore, I frequently need to copy/paste samples or search for a certain topic.
Attractive videos capture the audience's interest and keep them engaged throughout the video. That's why I'm all for videos!
@evgeniyyakubovckiy Videos do attract attention, but for help guides/documentation it's less about hooking the audience and more about being helpful and efficient to a user in need. Still, videos are indeed a good fit here as well - probably both written and video together. Thanks for sharing!
Usually both. A video that is under 10 minutes followed up with a bullet point explanation step by step.
Check out Scribe! It's great for explaining stuff