cre8d design

I’ve been investigating screencasting again recently on a number of fronts.

We’ve been using ViewletBuilder for a number of years as a way of providing tutorials (in flash) for computer programmes and it’s a great easy-to-use tool. As an example, I used ViewletBuilder to create a quick tutorial for installing Wordpress 2.0 earlier this year. However, it’s quite labor-intensive – you have to press a key each time you want to take a snapshot of the screen and it can take some time to compile the little movies. It’s not a ‘natural’ way of making screencasts.

There’s a number of other products out on the market (Wikipedia has a decent list) and Donation Coder has a helpful review and comparison guide. We’re looking at purchasing BB Flashback for our future screencasts.

I’ve been thinking about a lot of tech review sites I visit and none of them have yet to grasp the huge potential of screencasting. Yes, podcasting is all the rage, but sometimes images are much more powerful (and simple) than words or sounds. Instead of describing a site in beta-mode with screenshots and explaining how the interactivity/features/AJAX etc work, why not show a little 10 second screencast (with optional narration)? Keeping screencasts short enable visitors to pick and choose which feature they’d like to learn more about but longer screencasts could also work (in place of a podcast).

One reason why so many people were intrigued into downloading and learning more about Ruby on Rails was the screencasts which showed the power of the framework and language. Much more powerful than reading pages of information about why Ruby on Rails is better than something else.

When a new Web 2.0 site launches, I often go over and click around a bit and then leave. I might have missed a feature which would have made me “get” it, wowed me and made me realise that the site does has something to offer me. Screencasts could come in handy. And, no, I don’t want to see a movie which looks like a powerpoint presentation (yawn) and slowly steps me through the features. Screencasts may come across as rather raw (unless edited you’ll see typos, non-perfect mouse movements) but I think this is a strength. I liked that in the Ruby on Rails screencast on making a blog (view), the presenter makes a few mistakes along the way (“Oops I should have restarted the server before doing that…”).

Coincidentally, 37 Signals asked for Mac screencast software suggestions on their blog this week.

The number of people I’ve had email me with wonderfully kind sentiments for finally helping them understand how to install Wordpress 2.0 has been astounding (and that didn’t even have a voice-over!).

Next time you’re considering writing a review of a site’s features, or a tutorial on software, consider screencasting – rather than podcasting or just writing about it with screenshots. I’m going to.

For a long time, I’ve been wondered what the talented group of designers leading the Shuttle project – a new admin interface for Wordpress – would dream up. There’s now 20 mockups showing how it will look and the asthetics are lovely, the interface is still nice and simple and in many ways, very similar to what’s in version 2.0.

Reading the first part of the story behind the work so far is fascinating and I can’t wait until it’s integrated into WP and will appease people who believe the current WP admin interface isn’t professional enough.

It’s suddenly got very wintery here with rainy, cooler darker days. It had to arrive eventually and with it I look at my blog and think I need to update the design. It looks too summery, too light. I’ve changed my personal blog’s design countless times in the past in time with seasons and would like to continue on with this tradition.

Lately I’ve been inspired a lot by a different set of design blogs such as MoCo Loco, Design Sponge, Love Made visible and Outblush. There’s some gorgeous products coming out these days and I’m considering using Stylehive (or my default delicious account) to keep track of inspiring designs. If only stores I love (too countless to mention here) shipped to the far ends of the earth.

So, combining the winter season, product design inspiration and a little bit of a retro twist on being born in the late 70’s, here’s an initial design idea. It’s not at all finished but merely a starting point I could go further with or abandon.

Update: as the rain poured down I spent another 10 minutes putting together another idea. I think it’s a little closer to what I want but I’m not sure still.

What do you think? I think it’ll be fun showing you these works in progress. I usually go through a tonne of ideas.

Everyone’s blogging about the new Google Trends tool which enables you to see popularity of search terms over time. While you don’t see the actual numbers of queries, it’s helpful to see patterns, or compare search terms on a relative scale.

Two plots of specific interest to me:

Fascinating to note that in May 2004, MovableType 3.0 was released, along with licensing for the first time which is almost precisely when Wordpress became a more popular search phrase than MovableType. Ever since, MovableType has been on a downward trend while Wordpress has taken off. I hardly design any blogs these days in MovableType.

I started using Drupal and using it on various sites at the start of 2005, when interest sharly peaked. It’s a great tool if you’re looking for more than a blog to manage your content.