Tom Johnson has written an interesting post at his blog, in which he discusses embracing audio and video instead of “persuing the holy grail of single sourcing.” Tom, as usual, makes some very good points. But I was struck by one of the comments for that post.

That particular commenter wrote:

If I’m stuck with a product, the last thing I want to do is sit through a 2 min video, I want an answer and I want it now!

When it comes to user documentation, I have to agree with that sentiment. The written word, along with a well-designed graphic, is still the best bet if you need to get information quickly. But video can be a useful adjunct to documentation, especially if you give users the option of launching a video from within a help system or a PDF.

Video is great for training and tutorials. A good screencast — one which is short and concise — is worth many thousands of words. But I find that video is more useful when the user has the time to watch it, and doesn’t need a quick hit of information. Sometimes, you need to play a video a couple of times, or rewind to a particular section of the video, in order to pick up some of the nuances.

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment.

Related posts:

1. Video, documentation, and you
2. It shouldn’t be us versus them
3. Finding the voice that you need