When you need to learn how to do something — whether it’s caulking a sink, troubleshooting a new piece of software or learning a new hobby — where do you look? While written instructions and graphics often work well for users, increasingly people are turning to videos to learn a new procedure or even new content.
To understand how videos and other graphical content assist learning, we conducted a study with 8 participants. We asked them to research certain topics and learn how to complete various activities. Tasks varied in complexity and subject matter; examples include: determining the difference between ETFs and mutual funds, setting up a charcoal grill, finding what documents are needed to obtain a child’s passport, correctly executing a goblet squat, replacing parts on an air purifier, understanding what a particular online tool does, whether it possesses certain functionality, and how to set it up. When appropriate, participants were given relevant equipment and asked to complete the steps they learned: fold a napkin, tie a babywearing wrap, use a compass to orient a map and take a bearing, and so on.
This article describes findings from this study as well as from user behaviors observed in past research. (Since we tested only instructional videos, this article doesn’t cover videos for entertainment, news, persuasion/argumentation, or other types of noninstructional purposes.)
When and Why People Watch Videos
Not everyone enjoys watching videos — especially videos with informational or instructional content. When they need to learn something from the web, people will follow one of the below behavioral patterns:
- Read the text content only, avoiding the video
- Skim the text content, then watch the video
- Immediately watch the video — before (or instead of) reading the text
The second pattern, reading the text before watching the video, can be further broken down:
- Some people will skim through the text just long enough to get a general sense of the content, then move to watching the available video.
- Others will read through the text relatively thoroughly and use the video as a way to affirm their understanding.
One participant explained: “I wouldn’t start with a video first. That’s not my style, I like to read first … and then to get a better idea I would probably go to a video, but I like to read things first.”
These video-consumption behaviors depend not only on the habits and preferences of the person, but also on the complexity or (un)familiarity of the content. Our research participants were more likely to turn to a video at some point if the content described a long, multistep process or if the topic was unfamiliar or complicated. Even those who avoided watching a video and preferred the text would turn to the video as a last resort when the text was confusing, and the steps or topic weren’t fully understood.
“So now I’m going to watch the video … because I’m not super familiar with all this.”
Motivation and fatigue — how much effort they are willing to expend learning about the topic — also plays a role in how quickly people will turn to the video. As motivation waned, participants were increasingly likely to turn to watching the video, because this format is a more passive method of consuming information than reading. In addition, the design of the text content also affected people’s preference for video vs. text. Shorter sections of text and brief bullet points aren’t as intimidating as a long page filled with lengthy paragraphs: as the level of effort needed to read the text increases, the attractiveness of a video rises.
“This is too many words … it’s video time, because maybe that will sink into my brain better.”
Whether to Provide a Video
As mentioned above, many study participants appreciated a video as a secondary source of information — especially for long, multistep processes or complex topics. Even when people chose not to watch the video, they still often commented that they liked seeing that one was available.
Since complexity is relative, and what may seem simple to some can be complicated for others, if budget allows, it is best to include both text and video for informational content, as users can simply ignore the video when they don’t need it, but take advantage of it when they do.
Consistency counts: when people encountered a video in one area of a site, they expected to see a video available on similar pages as well and were disappointed if this was not the case — especially for content in the Help or Support sections of a website.
UX Guidelines for Videos
In our most recent research, we found, not surprisingly, that all our video-usability guidelines from previous studies still apply. Here, we’ll discuss some updated examples for several of those guidelines, in addition to new recommendations.
Present videos as supplementary or alternative content, not as a replacement for text.
A video should not be the only way to access information. As discussed above, not everyone enjoys watching videos to learn something and some users prefer to read text instead. After all, video is mostly an inefficient, sequential-access medium for transmitting information: people cannot easily choose which frames to attend to. In addition, if the video doesn’t have close captioning, it may not be feasible to play it — for example, because the user is at work or in another public space, speaks a different language and cannot easily understand the fast pace of the speech, or perhaps her computer doesn’t even have speakers! (On our own video channel, 26% of video views are with subtitles — clearly used by a much wider audience than just hearing-impaired users.)
“It’s great that they provide both the video and written directions… I like to read it first. When I got stuck on that one spot is when I went up to the video.”
People resented when a video was the sole way to get a piece of information. For example, on Dyson’s product-support page, a video was the only way to get information on how to replace the filter of an air purifier.
“I guess this video is how to monitor filter life. … So, I have to watch the video, even though I hate watching videos.”
Videos placed at the top of the page should be comprehensive.
Videos at the top of the page were the most discoverable and most likely to be watched. That said, this placement is only appropriate for videos that encompass the entirety of the text content. When a video is presented at the top of the page, people assume that it is an alternative to reading the text and expect that all the written content on the page be addressed in the video (and vice versa).
If a video is specific to only a certain section of content, present it at the top of that section. This placement effectively signals to the user that the video is not an overview of the entire page, and accurately sets the expectation that it will be focused on just a subset of information.
Avoid placing videos at the bottom of the page or in the right rail.
Videos placed at the bottom of a page were often ignored, for several reasons. First, some never scrolled down the page far enough to notice them. Second, those who did scroll either assumed that the video wouldn’t be as helpful due to its low priority on the page or, because they had already read through all the text content, they thought that watching the video was unnecessary. That said, presenting a video at the bottom of the page is better than not having any video at all, as the video could help those users who find it and are still confused or otherwise not satisfied with the text.
Avoid placing videos in the right-hand column of a page, as they are consistently overlooked by users due to right-rail blindness. When participants did finally notice a video placed in the right column — either after struggling and lamenting that no video was available to explain the process or when the facilitator directed them to the video — they were annoyed that the video was “hidden,” and misleadingly placed to look like an ad.
“Oh there’s a video here! I just saw that. It’s small, it’s on the right-hand side … Maybe if this video was in the center here, I just realized that [it was available] too late.”
Help users jump to specific content within a video.
For multistep processes, include multiple videos of low granularity (one for each step) instead of a single long video for the whole process. Videos move at the creator’s pace and not necessarily at the viewer’s pace. So, when watching complex instructional videos, study participants often had to pause and replay certain portions of videos as they strived to understand the content. This was particularly noticeable for how-to videos walking through multistep instructions, as people often wanted to watch the video while attempting to completing each step on their own.
For example, we asked participants to learn a certain napkin fold. Most participants ended up watching an instructional video while attempting to fold the napkin on their own. To succeed, they often had to replay the video, pausing and restarting it several times as they completed each step. As you can imagine, moving back and forth between folding the napkin and interacting with the computer was quite tedious. (Not only that, but they had often had to click multiple times to rewind to the relevant section of the video.)
While this issue likely cannot be avoided completely, splitting up a single long video into several shorter ones for each step or group of steps could help alleviate some of this pausing and scrubbing behavior. For example, the Home Depot website provided separate videos for how to light a charcoal grill and how to arrange the coals for various types of cooking.
Displaying chapters or other time markers within a long video can also help users jump to the appropriate moment. In the same way in which anchor links help someone jump to a certain position on a web page, links to a specific timestamp within the video can enable users to access only the section of interest.
Display the length of the video directly on the page.
Knowing the length of a video allows users to decide whether they want to play it. Shorter is often better: as it is less of a time commitment, people are more likely to watch it. A common complaint was that too often videos include lengthy introductions and don’t get to the point quickly enough. The duration of the video should be visible before playing the video — display it above the video, alongside the title, or as part of the video thumbnail, and not just within the video player’s scrub or progress bar.
Whenever appropriate, include an illustrative thumbnail that sets expectations for the video style (interview, lecture, animations, etc.).
People reacted negatively when a site created certain expectations with regard to video style and then violated them. For instance, most of the videos on the Vanguard website were animated graphics and text, with voiceovers explaining various financial topics. But, one video was a recorded interview of two people. Participants were disappointed when they began playing this video, as they had expected the same animated type of video they had seen earlier. Had the page included a thumbnail revealing the style of the video, this surprise and disappointment could have been avoided.
Include captions or other text within the video.
Many participants commented on how they often did not want or could not play sound on their devices. Thus, they appreciated when videos included captions or incorporated text that enabled them to follow along without listening to audio. Adding text into the video allows users to enjoy the best of both worlds: they can see the visuals explaining the topic or process, while reading the text (even pausing when needed to do so) to ensure they fully understand the content.
Conclusion
Instructional videos provide additional support for people learning an unfamiliar or complex topic or process. While there is no guarantee that someone will watch a video, the mere presence of a video is seen as a positive, and it will certainly help some users who are still confused after reading the text content. If you don’t provide a video when users realize they need one, they’ll find a different site that does.
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