Deliver first screencast & tutorial for review

[kahlil]

Hey @cowboy, I just created this issue and corresponding milestone to give this task a time frame.

This time frame of two weeks is a conservative one since I will be pretty occupied for the next 10 days. Hoping to deliver earlier though.

Progress report: still in the middle of it, working out kinks in the workflow and figuring out how to go about it in general in order to assure decent quality and to be able to bang them out quicker later.

[cowboy]

Excellent, keep me posted!

[kahlil]

Didn't make the milestone will need a little more time so I pushed the milestone back another week.

[cowboy]

Ok, please keep me posted. Thanks!

[kahlil]

Will do! I'm on it :)

[kahlil]

@cowboy I produced a first screencast for review. I chose to do the second one in the content roadmap that has the package.json as the subject. The first one would just be about how to install node etc. which was too simple as an example.

You can watch the screencast here: https://vimeo.com/78207685
The password is: dorkq

I am not 100% happy with some of my inflections in the audio recording but other than that I think it is a nice and concise 3min video on how and why to create a package.json file.

As to the article that goes along with it: the screencast is scripted, you can find the script here: https://github.com/kahlil/grunt-tutorial-02-package-json/blob/master/screencast-script/script.md

It would be easy to edit and reformat the script into an article to accompany the screencast.

Let me know what you think!

🐗

[kahlil]

Closing the issue since the delivery has occured 😃

[cowboy]

I'm going to re-open this to offer feedback.

[cowboy]

I love the demo, it seems super valuable. I would mention that "grunt test" can be used to run tests, provided that there is a "test" task defined, which you're probably going to want to do in your project. And I would mention that despite what is used to install Grunt and Grunt plugins, depending on the project you might want to remove (or even add) things from package.json. They can find more information at npmjs.org.

I found the parts before the demo a little hard to parse, though. Mainly because you were showing a lot of text on the screen at the same time that you were explaining the text on the screen. I think users will be overwhelmed by this approach. I loved the explanations, however... I'm just wondering if the screen could be more visual and less text-heavy.

Thoughts?

[kahlil]

Yo @cowboy thanks for the feedback!

Glad you like the demo. Will add the grunt test mention.

I agree with the beginning being hard to parse. It was an experiment and I was wondering how it comes across.
More visual would be better for sure.

So here are some thoughts on that:

• first of all instead of quoting the website maybe I should show the website itself...
• instead of explicitly reading what the website says and then explaining it, I could just explain it so the whole segment gets shorter
• I could show the npm site and the package.json documentation while explaining the relationship between pkg.json and node modules and grunt.

That would make it shorter I think and there would not be any text to parse while I talk.

What do you think? Any other ideas?

[cowboy]

Those sound like great ideas! I'll have to think to see if I can come up with anything else... but that sounds like a good start :)

[kahlil]

Ok I'll make a new version with those changes then. I'll probably be able to deliver next week. Thanks!

[kahlil]

Just a quick status update: I am currently totally bogged down at work and I can't slip in the screencasts. I should be able to work on them starting this weekend again.

[kahlil]

@cowboy OK. Here is the second version: https://vimeo.com/78207685
Password is still 'dorkq'.

[kahlil]

There Is a gap in the video which was not intended. Also I am not super happy with just showing the websites in the beginning. I'd like to improve that.

Mostly interested in what you think of the changes to narration / explanations.

[kahlil]

@cowboy I am redoing this again. Not happy with it at all after rewatching. I'll keep you updated. I am looking to bang out some more over the holidays.

I'll keep you posted.

[kahlil]

@cowboy OK I redid the package.json screencast. I like this much better: https://vimeo.com/78207685
password: dorkq

[cowboy]

Cross-linking to the parent issue, #69.

[cowboy]

Kahlil, can you post the script for the latest version somewhere I can edit it? I would like to make some tweaks. Thanks!

[kahlil]

Damn, should have thought of that before. Will do that in approx. an hour.

Sent from my iPhone

On 02.12.2013, at 20:23, Ben Alman [email protected] wrote:

Kahlil, can you post the script for the latest version somewhere I can edit it? I would like to make some tweaks. Thanks!

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[kahlil]

@cowboy alright here it is: https://github.com/kahlil/grunt-tutorial-02-package-json/blob/master/screencast-script/script.md

[kahlil]

@cowboy when can i expect your changes to the script?

I am currently working on the next script.

[kahlil]

@cowboy is there any way we can make the feedback loop shorter?
Maybe for a dedicated period of time or something? It would be great to be able to release the first five of them or so soon. But for that I need to get feedback quicker. Is there anybody else you trust that could help with the feedback?

I would also suggest that once the screencasts are released they are not done. We should solicit feedback from users of those screencast and I can revise if it makes sense.

[cowboy]

@distilledhype sorry for taking so long to respond. As it turns out, I just don't have the bandwidth to review these.

That said, I really like the general direction you've used in creating the videos and accompanying content, and while I'm sure I can nit-pick minor details, I feel good letting you own this content. And you don't have to worry about me holding up the feedback loop!

I have a few suggestions that might help:

While creating content, keep in mind that both the video and audio content might be the same in some parts, might be different in others, but regardless, need to support each other. If there's too much going on at the same time, it can get overwhelming. Visitors should feel comfortable and not rushed.

While working on a particular screencast, post a new issue with a link to the script and your first-draft video. Give others like @vladikoff, @shama, @tkellen, @sindresorhus, or anyone else who might be interested a few days to post any feedback they might have. If nobody suggests any changes, it's good to go.

Will that work for you?

[kahlil]

Hey @cowboy! Happy new year!

That sounds absolutely fine for me. Also I have no problem iterating on the screencasts once they are out if the feedback suggests it's a good idea.

Thanks for the suggestions I will keep that in mind!

More stuff coming up soon!

Sent from my iPhone

On 15.01.2014, at 17:03, Ben Alman [email protected] wrote:

@distilledhype sorry for taking so long to respond. As it turns out, I just don't have the bandwidth to review these.

That said, I really like the general direction you've used in creating the videos and accompanying content, and while I'm sure I can nit-pick minor details, I feel good letting you own this content. And you don't have to worry about me holding up the feedback loop!

I have a few suggestions that might help:

While creating content, keep in mind that both the video and audio content might be the same in some parts, might be different in others, but regardless, need to support each other. If there's too much going on at the same time, it can get overwhelming. Visitors should feel comfortable and not rushed.

While working on a particular screencast, post a new issue with a link to the script and your first-draft video. Give others like @vladikoff, @shama, @tkellen, @sindresorhus, or anyone else who might be interested a few days to post any feedback they might have. If nobody suggests any changes, it's good to go.

Will that work for you?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[cowboy]

Happy new year to you too. And thanks a lot, I look forward to seeing more stuff!

We should add the new section to the site once we've got 3-5 pieces completed, and continue from there. Don't be afraid to jump around in the content, do the easy or especially interesting ones first, etc. After we get a handful of representative pieces, we can invite other people on the team to pick ones to do, if they want to get involved. Plus, it might be nice to have some variety in there.

Either way, I'm excited!

[kahlil]

Sounds good!

Sent from my iPhone

On 15.01.2014, at 19:24, Ben Alman [email protected] wrote:

Happy new year to you too. And thanks a lot, I look forward to seeing more stuff!

We should add the new section to the site once we've got 3-5 pieces completed, and continue from there. Don't be afraid to jump around in the content, do the easy or especially interesting ones first, etc. After we get a handful of representative pieces, we can invite other people on the team to pick ones to do, if they want to get involved. Plus, it might be nice to have some variety in there.

Either way, I'm excited!

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[kahlil]

I am closing this since this was just intended for delivery of the first screencast. I am posting all the new material in the original issue: #69