As someone introduced to TikTok during the pandemic, I appreciate your presentation! When the app moved from 1-3 minute videos, I was grateful because of fewer “part twos.” In my experience, though, I have found the captioning subpar for most videos, which means those who rely on them simply cannot on TikTok. Based on your project conclusions, including the pedagogical ones, what design advice do you offer for making TikTok more accessible?
Adding to Kristin’s question: As a paid tiktok content creator, I’ve found that adding captions to videos decreases the circulation of content by an average of 80%. Which…is not fun!
Based on your experience, did this specific creator use captions and textual annotations in concert? And if so, how?
Would you expect that a decreased in views on captioned videos to stem from user preference (“the space looks cluttered with captions”), algorithmic bias (because the algo learns captioned vids don’t do as well), or both?
That’s interesting! I didn’t realize that videos with captions were less popular. The user whose videos I studied used visual cues like arrows and pans along with textual annotations so the captions were minimal.
As for captions leading to a decrease in views, I can’t give a definitive answer as to whether that’s due to user preference or algorithmic bias. It would make for an interesting study of accessibility features though. I suppose there may be a disparity in the algorithmic benefit of captions as well depending on the video content. I’ll have to look into this phenomenon some more. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
The cases I studied implemented a variety of visual cues that contributed to the instructions. There wasn’t any significant audio in videos produced by sheetgeek, which I’d say makes the videos more accessible for people who rely on visual over auditory instructions.
Jessica Campbell
1 year ago
Good emphasis on the notion: technical communicators are not just writers anymore, they are multimedia information designers.
Yes! Information is far more multimodal than it once was so information design across media is a a core competency of technical communicators.
wourmajj
1 year ago
I enjoyed this poster presentation being a novice tik-tok user myself! I am curious do you think different design and rhetorical elements would be considered depending on the industry, or are the ones you suggested in your findings something that can be used across the board?
That’s a fascinating question that I can’t answer conclusively without additional research. The design and rhetorical elements used in the videos I studied do have some applicability across task-oriented instructional videos. However, there may be additional strategies that can be used depending on the industry or content.
jlabrio1
1 year ago
Thank you for your poster presentation here, Michael.
As somebody who teaches instruction sets often in my technical communication courses, I love how you’ve tackled these “microvideo” tutorials on TikTok. I think your pedagogical implications are spot on — and this presentation has inspired me to think about how to incorporate a “microvideo” option as a method for developing instruction sets for my student projects next semester.
What other technologies/tools would we be able to map onto a project that asked them to make microvideo instructions?
It’s already got me thinking…It becomes that opportunity for teaching other technological literacies with screen recorders, audio-voiceovers, adding captioning, etc. are all crucial skills that could be helpful for future technical communications, too.
In fact, I actually follow “@sheetgeek” and watch their videos when they pop up on my FYP, so it was great to see you talk about their videos, too!
Incorporating video skills, along with skills in other tools like screen recorders, audio recorders, and image/video editing, will be very useful for your students. In my career, I’ve learned how to use a lot of tools that I didn’t learn much about from classes so it’ll be helpful to create that bridge from the academic to the professional sides.
TikTok is just a framework for my study, but the instructional video can be presented across various platforms and produced with different tools. Any video editing software (iMovie, Adobe Creative Cloud, etc.) would be useful for the project of producing short-form instruction sets, in addition to a screen recording software. The crux of the project should focus not on the tool used but on the methods implemented for instructing viewers in completing some task within a short period, while also providing students with opportunities for building software skills.
As someone introduced to TikTok during the pandemic, I appreciate your presentation! When the app moved from 1-3 minute videos, I was grateful because of fewer “part twos.” In my experience, though, I have found the captioning subpar for most videos, which means those who rely on them simply cannot on TikTok. Based on your project conclusions, including the pedagogical ones, what design advice do you offer for making TikTok more accessible?
Adding to Kristin’s question: As a paid tiktok content creator, I’ve found that adding captions to videos decreases the circulation of content by an average of 80%. Which…is not fun!
Based on your experience, did this specific creator use captions and textual annotations in concert? And if so, how?
Would you expect that a decreased in views on captioned videos to stem from user preference (“the space looks cluttered with captions”), algorithmic bias (because the algo learns captioned vids don’t do as well), or both?
That’s interesting! I didn’t realize that videos with captions were less popular. The user whose videos I studied used visual cues like arrows and pans along with textual annotations so the captions were minimal.
As for captions leading to a decrease in views, I can’t give a definitive answer as to whether that’s due to user preference or algorithmic bias. It would make for an interesting study of accessibility features though. I suppose there may be a disparity in the algorithmic benefit of captions as well depending on the video content. I’ll have to look into this phenomenon some more. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
The cases I studied implemented a variety of visual cues that contributed to the instructions. There wasn’t any significant audio in videos produced by sheetgeek, which I’d say makes the videos more accessible for people who rely on visual over auditory instructions.
Good emphasis on the notion: technical communicators are not just writers anymore, they are multimedia information designers.
I agree with this!
Yes! Information is far more multimodal than it once was so information design across media is a a core competency of technical communicators.
I enjoyed this poster presentation being a novice tik-tok user myself! I am curious do you think different design and rhetorical elements would be considered depending on the industry, or are the ones you suggested in your findings something that can be used across the board?
That’s a fascinating question that I can’t answer conclusively without additional research. The design and rhetorical elements used in the videos I studied do have some applicability across task-oriented instructional videos. However, there may be additional strategies that can be used depending on the industry or content.
Thank you for your poster presentation here, Michael.
As somebody who teaches instruction sets often in my technical communication courses, I love how you’ve tackled these “microvideo” tutorials on TikTok. I think your pedagogical implications are spot on — and this presentation has inspired me to think about how to incorporate a “microvideo” option as a method for developing instruction sets for my student projects next semester.
What other technologies/tools would we be able to map onto a project that asked them to make microvideo instructions?
It’s already got me thinking…It becomes that opportunity for teaching other technological literacies with screen recorders, audio-voiceovers, adding captioning, etc. are all crucial skills that could be helpful for future technical communications, too.
In fact, I actually follow “@sheetgeek” and watch their videos when they pop up on my FYP, so it was great to see you talk about their videos, too!
Incorporating video skills, along with skills in other tools like screen recorders, audio recorders, and image/video editing, will be very useful for your students. In my career, I’ve learned how to use a lot of tools that I didn’t learn much about from classes so it’ll be helpful to create that bridge from the academic to the professional sides.
TikTok is just a framework for my study, but the instructional video can be presented across various platforms and produced with different tools. Any video editing software (iMovie, Adobe Creative Cloud, etc.) would be useful for the project of producing short-form instruction sets, in addition to a screen recording software. The crux of the project should focus not on the tool used but on the methods implemented for instructing viewers in completing some task within a short period, while also providing students with opportunities for building software skills.
Michael