Presentation experts like [...]]]> Whether you’re developing a presentation, a screencast or an explanatory video, a key piece of advice you’ll hear over and over again is to develop a script and storyboard for the project before the actual production phase. This is something I’ve tried to take to heart in my presentation, screencast and video projects.

Presentation experts like Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds recommend “going analog” in the initial stages of development. Get away from the computer and sketch ideas using whiteboards, sticky notes, index cards – whatever works for you. The idea is to focus on creativity first, not fonts or transitions. This was also something that Lee LeFever emphasized his VizThink ‘08 session on explanatory videos.

So, I thought it might be fun to show some of my sketches from brainstorming sessions and storyboarding from some of my explanatory videos. I recently just published an explanatory video on critical thinking. Most of the initial visual concepts and ideas for this came about one Saturday afternoon while I was washing dishes. As an aside, I’ve found that getting out of the office and doing something else is the best way for me to come up with ideas. Some of my best ideas have come when I’m outside playing fetch with my dog, washing dishes, cooking, showering, etc. (The relationship between thinking and physical activity is nicely explained in Dr. John Medina’s book, Brain Rules.)

Anyway, here’s some storyboard sketches I came up with for the critical thinking video. If you’ve seen the video, you may recognize some of the visual concepts. Not all the ideas made it into the video. A lot of things changed. But I think the exercise of sketching out ideas and storyboarding the script are not only essential for presentations and explanatory videos, but for me, it’s also fun.

And here’s a couple more from a new project I’m working on – an explanatory video about the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative.

The new MEDB web site

While I’ve been heavily focused on explanatory video projects lately, I’ve also been kept very busy on web projects for one of my main clients, Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB). I started doing web work for MEDB back in 2005, redesigning several of their websites. In 2009 [...]]]>

The new MEDB web site

While I’ve been heavily focused on explanatory video projects lately, I’ve also been kept very busy on web projects for one of my main clients, Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB). I started doing web work for MEDB back in 2005, redesigning several of their websites. In 2009 we set out to re-brand the various MEDB web sites, with Maui graphic design firm Sae Design taking the lead on the look. First up was the MEDB web site. After meeting about functionality and concept, Sae delivered a Photoshop file to me from which I produced the basic web template as well as a Wordpress template for the news section. The concept includes featured content slider on the home page implemented with jQuery. The result is a much sleeker, cleaner, open design than the old site.

The new AMOS web site

The Advanced Maui Optical Space and Surveillance Technologies Conference (AMOS) is another project of MEDB for which I do quite a bit of work. Most of this is primarily back-end database functionality to support conference registration, and submission of technical papers for the conference but we also come up with a new look to kick off each new year. This year the project director and project manager came up with some basic concepts of backgrounds and images as well as some new functionality. After a couple of iterations of rapid prototypes we settled on a new design and launched that earlier this month.

Concurrent with the development of these new web sites was the development of online registration forms and databases for the 8th Annual High Tech Maui Career Fair and several workshops High Tech Maui workshops. It’s been a very busy last few months and with a redesign of the High Tech Maui web site and registration and database development for the AMOS conference, both currently in progress, the next few months are looking pretty busy too.

Noticing increasing societal polarization, especially political, where people are bombarded with “facts” and opinions by pundits and experts, I’ve felt frustrated that so many people choose to blindly follow their pundit of choice like rats following the Pied Piper, without really thinking [...]]]> Today I published a new explanatory video about critical thinking called “Do You Think?”

Noticing increasing societal polarization, especially political, where people are bombarded with “facts” and opinions by pundits and experts, I’ve felt frustrated that so many people choose to blindly follow their pundit of choice like rats following the Pied Piper, without really thinking and questioning. Having been formally exposed to serious critical thinking standards in my MBA program, I’ve felt that if more people were exposed to critical thinking principles as a discipline, they might at least be able to identify when statements, opinions and actions aren’t completely rational. With that in mind I set out to make an explanatory video explaining some basic principles of critical thinking in the style of Xplane’s recent videos Did You Know and The Carbon Economy. This video is about teaching some very basic critical thinking standards with the intent to intrigue the viewer enough about critical thinking to learn more about the subject.

Much of the content for this video was culled from the Foundation for Critical Thinking’s website, especially their page on universal intellectual standards.

There’s a great article on ReelSEO.com called “The Three Types of Online Video for Business.” Also worth reading is Mashable’s 5 Tips for [...]]]> Online video for business is starting to get the attention it deserves. There’s been a couple of notable articles published in the last week that are worth reading.

There’s a great article on ReelSEO.com called “The Three Types of Online Video for Business.” Also worth reading is Mashable’s 5 Tips for Using Video to Grow Your Business in 2010. Worth noting in that article:

video marketing is poised for a huge year in 2010. The reason is clear: video simply engages people in a way that static text and images cannot. There are dozens of studies that show the power of video to boost customer interaction, drive sales, encourage viral sharing, and build brand awareness. And according to MarketingSherpa, 95 percent of the companies that have used online video marketing are happy with the results and expect to use it again in the future.

NextGen Photo Gallery for Wordpress from Jeff Bennett on Vimeo.