This is a cool idea. I do screenshot-tutorials all the time and this would ease the workflow. My only concern is that I would like to have control of the produced content as an export for my own blog/site.
I understand that's not financially favorable to you as a free service, but will it be part of the paid service?
yes - we will offer download package for you to put on your own server as a premium...but we do offer an embed functionality which should meet your needs..
I'm not a big fan of the outline you used to indicate the next action. When I saw your tutorial, I couldn't see where the Login button is because of the thick orange outline hovering the login button making it hard to the "login" button. It needs to be outside of the labels and it should be easier to see.
You should research for a different way to direct users there, the outline should be optional. Maybe an arrow or other type of animation.
Other than that, it looks great and I can't wait to see it mature. I'd love to use it!
I agree, the next buttons are too invasive. I'd love to see them as left and right arrows near the edges that bold with mouseover. I think that users would be more familiar with that as well. Also love the idea to have voiceover too by another HN reader.
I too dislike screencasts. This is a great concept. Good luck.
I think people who hate screencasts would also be annoyed at the slow animations between each step. Is it just me, or are they more than a second long?
Even with configurable animation speed, I think the default should be either no animation or very fast, since this is supposed to be an alternative to screencasts.
My hunch is no animation is better, but since I haven’t actually seen that I don’t know if some animation is necessary to provide a cue for where the next step is.
Pricing - Comming soon (should be Coming Soon) or ideally should be listed from the beginning ;)
A lot of the examples at the bottom seem to either be blank or break your webserver seeing a lot of
Error Occurred While Processing Request
Element XMLATTRIBUTES.IMAGEID is undefined in a Java object of type class coldfusion.xml.XmlNodeMap referenced as ''
The error occurred in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\iorad\app\dspHTMLPlayer.cfm: line 777
The instructional dialogue windows dominate the screen visually so it distracts the user from what's actually happening on the website. They won't know where to focus their eyes, and the amount of time it takes for them to orient themselves for each dialogue could make it more cumbersome than a "regular" screencast.
I disagree - the instructional dialog is the whole point.
I'm not sure if you can control it's position, but that is probably the only thing you'd need to solve any problems (though I strongly disagree this is more difficult for users than a traditional screencast)
I agree, but I think this could be solved with a better user interface.
If this dialogue was placed in a fixed position (say in a black bar across the bottom) it would add a consistent location to refer to the content. Instead of watching the black box jump around, you could watch the content change and push at your own pace.
Great idea that could be a game changer with a better UI!
Similar to this, I don't think you should have the user sometimes click on the dialogue box (at the beginning) and sometimes click on others elements. I kept trying to push the mouse icon the first time I went through. Or, alternatively, you could make clicking the dialogue act the same as clicking the buttons. That way even if you do that, it works.
I always hated screen casts. I prefer creating a Word or PDF document with annotated screenshots which user can go through at their own pace. One of the idea in my idea list was to make it easy to take screenshots and annotate them and create a polished PDF.
But what you have created is even better. It is highly interactive and user can follow the steps as they work on the actual application. Extremely well done. I think you should market the hell out of this. I think there are lot of buyers out there for this kind of software.
What kind of pricing are we looking at?
P.S.: Always great to see a team of Indians creating a software product, I wish you all the best. I hope you also become as successful as Visual Website Optimizer guys.
thanks much...we're going to follow a github type model..public tutorials are free...for premium we are going to offer pdf, ppt, doc and html export to deploy on your own servers...
+1 to this idea, particularly cleaning up the URLs. You should also setup a "browse" type page for users to browse through the topics. So if I went to http://iorad.com/tutorial/topics/microsoft-word/ I'd get a listing of all tutorials based on microsoft word. That'll help your SEO for searches like "Microsoft Word Tutorials"
Also, while clicking around your site I got quite a few ColdFusion errors with the full debug output. At the very least I'd set restrict debug output to your local IP's within ColdFusion Administrator.
It looks really cool, but clicking on one of the newly created projects[1] gives me a 500 error and a coldfusion stacktrace, you might want to turn those off.
Is it down? I'm getting:
500 - Internal server error.
Overall though very optimistic this could replace Adobe Captivate and some use of Camtasia for me. Please add support to generate a simple list of actions (including or based on edited captions). I'm dying for something that will let me produce:
1. Demo script
2. Handouts
3. Video
Very nice. Does it record audio? I am thinking of suggesting this to a local ruby users' group that currently records using video cameras. If it did audio, this would be perfect for them. And I have more use cases in mind.
Really cool. Feedback: The outlines on the buttons to be clicked obscure the buttons. An optional sound track would be great as well.
Design details make this work or not work - put some effort into figuring out how to guide the user's eye to keep their attention where it needs to be.
This responds to a very real and ubiquitous need. And fills its niche very nicely. It doesn't just make you a passive watcher: it immerses you in the very centre of action. Splendidly executed -- I definitely will be using it. Kudos!
I really like this. Makes explaining things very easy. One critique, the first step allows me to click on the main screen to advance, but from there I have to move to the navigation bar below. Is this configurable? I only went through the linked example.
EDIT: I didn't catch that you could actually execute the actions laid out to move forward. This wasn't clear, but makes sense now that I've seen it.
yes i guess my example is a bit confusing, you actually have to follow the directions in the caption, if it says click login you have to click login...its interactive
Awesome, I love it. I think needs an "auto-play" function though, so people can just sit back and treat it like a video. When I click the "play" triangle, I'm expecting video.
yes - this was our thinking ..for people that want just the video they would prefer just the step by step document version like when you press the "quick guide" button in the playbar...agree? disagree?
Thank you so much for this! I have clients who can't figure out how to use certain web apps and typing it out just isn't the same as being there in person. This is the next best thing.
All the Javascript on the site is broken when your browser locale is set to Japanese, it seems like cfmessage_ja.js is corrupted: http://imgb.mp/ipz.jpg
DAMN! This has been my million dollar idea I'll build one day for 2 years. Oh well, at least someone else did a good job of it.
Pretty much exactly what I was thinking. I even wireframed the same interaction. Frustrated but happy. At least someone did it.
How long did it take you guys to put this together? It's quite slick. I hadn't though of using a java applet to record stuff. That locks in the IP and helps with some things, but I was imagining more of a browser extension approach.
Yeah something about it made me feel like I was looking at a "GET A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO AWESOME MAGAZINE" sort of sign up. Also even though the text was stating that NO credit card info was needed, my super quick initial scan of the page saw the words "free" and "credit card," and the brain got confused.
Overall, I love the idea. Potentially solved an issue I didn't know I had.
This is awesome!
I hate screencasts too so I hope this tool will be adopted widely.
Just the name... How should it be pronounced? Does 'iorad' mean something? (I'm Swiss German)
In any case thank's a lot!
99 comments
[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 178 ms ] threadI understand that's not financially favorable to you as a free service, but will it be part of the paid service?
You should research for a different way to direct users there, the outline should be optional. Maybe an arrow or other type of animation.
Other than that, it looks great and I can't wait to see it mature. I'd love to use it!
I too dislike screencasts. This is a great concept. Good luck.
My hunch is no animation is better, but since I haven’t actually seen that I don’t know if some animation is necessary to provide a cue for where the next step is.
A lot of the examples at the bottom seem to either be blank or break your webserver seeing a lot of
Error Occurred While Processing Request Element XMLATTRIBUTES.IMAGEID is undefined in a Java object of type class coldfusion.xml.XmlNodeMap referenced as ''
The error occurred in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\iorad\app\dspHTMLPlayer.cfm: line 777
I'm not sure if you can control it's position, but that is probably the only thing you'd need to solve any problems (though I strongly disagree this is more difficult for users than a traditional screencast)
If this dialogue was placed in a fixed position (say in a black bar across the bottom) it would add a consistent location to refer to the content. Instead of watching the black box jump around, you could watch the content change and push at your own pace.
Great idea that could be a game changer with a better UI!
I always hated screen casts. I prefer creating a Word or PDF document with annotated screenshots which user can go through at their own pace. One of the idea in my idea list was to make it easy to take screenshots and annotate them and create a polished PDF.
But what you have created is even better. It is highly interactive and user can follow the steps as they work on the actual application. Extremely well done. I think you should market the hell out of this. I think there are lot of buyers out there for this kind of software.
What kind of pricing are we looking at?
P.S.: Always great to see a team of Indians creating a software product, I wish you all the best. I hope you also become as successful as Visual Website Optimizer guys.
I think it will be a PERFECT SEM strategy.
Also, while clicking around your site I got quite a few ColdFusion errors with the full debug output. At the very least I'd set restrict debug output to your local IP's within ColdFusion Administrator.
PS: this is Paras from Visual Website Optimizer.
[1]http://www.iorad.com/?a=app.htmlplayer&accessCode=GUEST&...
Overall though very optimistic this could replace Adobe Captivate and some use of Camtasia for me. Please add support to generate a simple list of actions (including or based on edited captions). I'm dying for something that will let me produce: 1. Demo script 2. Handouts 3. Video
All in one run.
Design details make this work or not work - put some effort into figuring out how to guide the user's eye to keep their attention where it needs to be.
EDIT: I didn't catch that you could actually execute the actions laid out to move forward. This wasn't clear, but makes sense now that I've seen it.
Although language and UI elements could use some polishing.
Is there a email I can reach you at? Alternatively, please contact me at me@solutionyogi.com. Would love to share some more ideas.
Pretty much exactly what I was thinking. I even wireframed the same interaction. Frustrated but happy. At least someone did it.
How long did it take you guys to put this together? It's quite slick. I hadn't though of using a java applet to record stuff. That locks in the IP and helps with some things, but I was imagining more of a browser extension approach.
Overall, I love the idea. Potentially solved an issue I didn't know I had.
It's just one of these names that doesn't stick (if not prominent enough) and can't be derivated of its purpose.