Informational Videos

Short videos can be a great way to get information across.  Videos don't have to be overly produced to be effective, oftentimes, simplicity and a clear message are the most important things. 

I am a big fan of the videos made by Common Craft.  Common Craft makes 3 minute explanatory videos that are very good example of the effectiveness of clean, simple, but very carefully designed messages.  Their approach is so basic in fact, that at first, it almost seems like a joke or a gimmick.  Watch a few though, and you can't help but be impressed.  My favorites are about insurance, passwords, social media, and Twitter. 

They follow some consistent design rules:

1. Each picture has a purpose.  Each picture has been carefully selected to communicate a clear message.  There are no decorative pictures or anything else to distract from the message.  Designers sometimes like decorations and decorative pictures, but studies have shown that they can decrease learning. 
2. The videos have useful metaphors that are used throughout.  The insurance video uses a life preserver metaphor.  It would have been easy to use the metaphor once and expect the user understand. Much better though, to use it throughout the video so that it becomes reinforced as a powerful, and simple symbol. 
3. The people are about as generic as they can be.  They often don't have faces, or distinguishable genders but it turns out that they don't need to. 
4. They're short.  Three minutes might not seem like a lot of time to explain a complex topic, but it can work.