Hans van der Meij and Jan van der Meij - Eight Guidelines for the Design of Instructional Videos for Software Training

Hans van der Meij and Jan van der Meij - Eight Guidelines for the Design of Instructional Videos for Software Training 

This article focuses on the effectiveness of video based instruction sets for software training. In an age when more and more how-to guides are video based, the author wanted to test their effectiveness compared to traditional text-based instruction sets. What they found was that not only did videos “yield high skill proficiency”, users were also more proficient with the software a week later compared to text based instruction sets. The authors performed extensive research in order to develop “Eight Guidelines for the Design of Instructional Videos.” These eight guidelines are:   

•    Guideline 1: Provide easy access
        1.1: Craft the title carefully
•    Guideline 2: Use animation with narration
        2.1: Be faithful to the actual interface in the animation
        2.2: Use a spoken human voice for the narration
        2.3: Action and voice must be in synch
•    Guideline 3: Enable functional interactivity
        3.1: Pace the video carefully
        3.2: Enable user control
•    Guideline 4: Preview the task
        4.1: Promote the goal
        4.2: Use a conversational style to enhance perceptions of task relevance
        4.3: Introduce new concepts by showing their use in context
•    Guideline 5: Provide procedural rather than conceptual information
•    Guideline 6: Make tasks clear and simple
        6.1: Follow the user’s mental plan in describing an action sequence
        6.2: Draw attention to the interconnection of user actions and system  reactions
        6.3: Use highlighting to guide attention
•    Guideline 7: Keep videos short

•    Guideline 8: Strengthen demonstration with practice

I loved the organization of the article, everything was clearly structured and visually appealing. Hans van der Meij and Jan van der Meij have created a sort of magic formula for efficient video tutorial. Each of the eight guidelines goes into such detail that you can create or improve any video tutorial on one or all of the eight categories of tips. I also thought it was kind of funny and interesting that this piece was, in a way, an instruction set for instruction sets.