When media earns its place
Audio, video and image cost time, money and screen-space. Each should answer a question text cannot answer alone. If the screen would be just as clear without the media, cut the media.
By the end of this unit- Choose audio, video or image based on what each does best.
- Brief a producer with the level of detail that gets the right asset back the first time.
- Apply the accessibility minimum for each media type.
Three questions before you brief media
What does this media do that text cannot?
If you cannot finish the sentence "I need video here because…" with something concrete, the screen does not need video.
How will a learner on a phone experience it?
Buffering, captions on a small screen, audio in a noisy room. Design for the constraint, not the ideal.
What does the screen do while the media plays?
Asking the learner to read and listen at the same time will lose you both. Pick one channel at a time.
Audio
Audio carries tone and example better than text. It costs the learner attention. Use it when the example is something the learner needs to hear — a teacher's voice, a phone call, a piece of speech with stress in the right place.
What a good audio brief contains
A complete script
Direction on tone and pace
Pronunciation notes
Pause and emphasis marks
The asset title and transcript title
Transcripts are part of the design
A transcript is not the script. It is what an accessible learner hears in their head when they read the screen. It describes the sound, not just the words: tone of voice, a pause, the noise of a classroom. Closed captions on video follow the same rule.
Write the transcript before you record. It catches problems in the script that you would only otherwise hear in the studio.
Video
Video is expensive. It is the right tool for movement, demonstration, body language and place. It is the wrong tool for talking heads reading text that the screen could carry better.
Use video for these
What a good video brief contains
Length cap
2 minutes is the working maximum for a workplace learning clip. 90 seconds is better. Plan to lose anything the cap forces you to lose.
Storyboard with shot sizes
Wide / medium / close. Tell the producer when each one comes.
Captions and a descriptive transcript
Captions are not optional. The transcript describes scenes and sound, not just speech.
What plays on top of the video
Lower-thirds, on-screen text, end-card. Specify all of them.
If a learner can watch the video on mute and still get the point, the video is well-designed. If they cannot, the captions are doing too much work.
Image
Most images in workplace learning are decoration. Decoration adds load without adding learning. Cut decorative images. Keep images that do work.
Images that do work
Diagrams hold relationships, sequences, hierarchies. Use them when the structure of the idea matters more than its prose. Label every part. Use sentence case.
Screenshots show the actual interface the learner will use. Crop them tight. Highlight the part that matters with a single coloured callout, not three.
Photographs of real situations carry weight. Stock photography of people pointing at laptops does not. Use a real one or none.
Image descriptions
Every image needs a description that conveys what the image is for. If the image is decorative, mark it as such so screen readers skip it. If the image carries meaning, the description carries that meaning. Write the description in the storyboard, not in the build.
Pick three images from a course you have built. For each one, write the sentence "This image is here because…". If two of the three sentences are weak, cut those images.
End of Unit 3
You should now be able to:
- Choose between audio, video and image based on what each carries.
- Brief media producers with the level of specificity that prevents costly re-shoots.
- Treat transcripts, captions and image descriptions as part of the design, not the cleanup.
Unit review
You need to show a learner how to use a new piece of software. Which medium is most likely the right one?
Which of these is not in a good audio brief?
What does a good transcript include that the script does not?
You have a photograph of three people in business clothes pointing at a screen. The screen is blurry. Use it?
End of module
Next: Learning Experience (LX) Design — how to plan the whole arc of a learner's experience, not just the screens.