I’ve added a new Overview screencast to the screencasts page. I kept it focused on the efficiency side of Default Folder X, so it doesn’t highlight all of the features. I felt it was important to get the primary point across and not get lost in the details.
Default Folder X Overview
(QuickTime video – 3:18)
I’m interested to hear your opinions – particularly whether the focus is right (getting to your files vs. details like rebound, tagging, etc).
Jon:
The new video is a huge improvement over the old one. You’ve done a great job showing a quick overview of Default Folder. This should be very helpful as a marketing tool.
Sheri
Thanks Sheri! Despite being so useful, Default Folder X is awfully hard to explain.
I finally settled on the ‘get there faster’ story you see in the screencast, even though it relegates a lot of features to the background (Rebound, Get Info, Rename, New Folder, Move to Trash, etc). When I looked at all of the glowing emails we get from users, the thing that stood out the most was the fact that it just makes their everyday work faster and easier.
I’m hoping the screencast makes that clear enough that people will download and try DFX, because once we get people using it, so many of them say there’s no going back 🙂
I agree with Sheri. Very well done, Jon! I was just surprised that you didn’t show the preview while you were in the status menu. 🙂
I wouldn’t bog down the screencast by demonstrating command keys. They made DF look hard-to-learn.
I would suggest that the voiceover describe each feature *before* you start demonstrating it on the screen. That would help me understand what I was being shown.
I would linger longer on menus, to give the viewer time to get oriented. Some sequences were too rushed, IMO.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention that DF fixes the popup menu in open/save dialogs to show a folder’s ancestors. I doubt that it’s just us old MacOS users that consider OS X’s behavior, er, problematic. Honestly, I don’t know how most Mac users can navigate the hierarchy of the filesystem in open/save dialogs without this fix!
I know it’s a matter of taste…but I find the “Black bezel” toolbar style a little radical, and I fear that prospects might be put off by its foreign (dare I say un-mac-like?) appearance. I suspect that “Gray sidebar” would be least scary, but maybe “Black toolbar” would be a good compromise, because it would be more visible in the screencast.
Great voice, BTW! You sound like a pro!
Thanks Christopher – I’ll definitely heed your suggestions. I sped through the material because earlier iterations were horribly boring, but I think you’re right – this one is a little hurried in places. I’ll try and strike more of a balance, show the menus for longer, demo the path menu, and lead a little more with the voiceover. As far as the look goes, the black bezel is the default appearance, so that’s what’s shown. Some users do prefer the gray sidebar, but showing the different view options would be going beyond an ‘overview’, no?
This is a good screencast; thank you for it. I think it could be made even better. Here are a few suggestions.
1) At the beginning of the screencast, don’t tell us that saving the file can be time-consuming; show us that it is by first using the finder to save the file to a folder nestled away somewhere. Then when you use Default Folder X to save the same file, the viewer can compare the two experiences, and see clearly the time and hassle savings.
2) Not a big deal, but I would mention that Default Folder is a preference pane, so that when you turn on Default Folder, the viewer can imagine that you have opened up System Preferences, or at least recognize the surrounding System Preferences window.
3) I think it’s good to show that DFX responds to keyboard shortcuts and that you can assign hot-keys. I wouldn’t show too many of the former, but give a teeny demonstration of the latter. This way, the viewer understands that any folder on any drive can be gotten to by keyboard shortcut.
4) I don’t use the black bezel default appearance, so I would suggest saying on the screencast something like, “Even the appearance is customizable,” and showing the gray sidebar alternative.
Good luck with promoting Default Folder X.
More great feedback – thanks Alan! The first take of the screencast showed how slow it was to navigate without DFX, but it really dragged down the beginning of the presentation. It really was time-consuming – so much so that the whole video went really flat in the first 30 seconds. I don’t know if showing the comparison is worth it in a 3 minute presentation.
Good points on System Preferences, keyboard shortcuts, and mentioning the customizability – I’ll see if I can work that in. Not sure whether revamping this screencast is going to come before or after a couple of others that illustrate specific features.
Thanks!
As a power user, and for users of ANY level, I can highly recommend this utility. It is how the Finder dialogs should be, and from an interface and usability standpoint it is one of the most valuable utilities I have seen for Mac OSX in along time. It is tightly integrated, and has become a HUGE time saver for my everyday workflow. I can’t imagine using the Finder without it now. Thanks for a solid, stable, and well designed tool.
It’s up to you whether it’s worth the time to show more than one appearance, but my point was that if you show just one, I would pick one that is less foreign; viz “gray sidebar” or “black toolbar”.
Maybe “black bezel” shouldn’t be the default appearance anyway (for the same reason)?
I don’t think it would be terrible if you demonstrated with a non-default style. A new user to DF who was familiar with the video would simply conclude right away “There must be a setting for appearance…”
Not that it would be worth re-shooting, but I found it a little odd that you demonstrated DF using an app with non-standard chrome for its window. Isn’t that choice a little more out-there than demoing DF with a non-default, but built-in, appearance?
I haven’t seen enough screencasts to know what the conventions are, though.
–Christopher