HCDE 451: Video Prototype
While each assignment had its own video component in order to showcase what we created during the week, this assignment was different in the aspect that the main focus was the video itself. The goal of the video was to demonstrate the functionality of an already existing health app while pitching it to new users. After looking around at the apps that I have previously used and the ones available, I decided to create a video around the Fitbit app.
[Re]Familiarizing Myself with Fitbit
The Fitbit app is as an all-purpose app that allows users to track just about everything in their life from their diet to their sleeping habits. While this was not the first time I had used the Fitbit app, the last time I did use it was well over three years ago. Surprisingly though, not much had changed since then; the app still has the core tracking features of daily activity (movement and exercises), nutrition (food and water), and health (sleep and weight).
Storyboard
After exploring through these sections for a bit, I then set off to create a quick story board around these 3 tracking features. I wanted to create a video that showed how it would typically be used in someone’s life. As a result, each section involved a scenario where the I would do my activity and then use the Fitbit app to track the activity. The situations I planned to film include exercising on a stationary bike, eating food, and waking up from sleep. I also planned to include a blow up of the app in frame to show how a user would track their activity.
Filming & Editing
Filming each scene was fairly simple in the fact that I just set up a tripod, got into position, and then had my brother start the recording. What I didn’t realize is that I very much disliked acting for the video. I felt awkward and out of place filming myself but I eventually got all the shots I needed to create the video. For the app displays that I wanted to incorporate, I just did a screen recording as I went through and logged my activities.
Editing on the other hand took the longest. While I didn’t do anything overly complicated to piece together the video, I decided that I wanted to overlay a device frame over my screen recordings so that it looked more natural. After a bit of googling on how to do this, I realized that you can edit videos in Photoshop! This was perfect because I already have some Photoshop device templates from other classes that I could use. The only drawback was that Photoshop took forever (around 3 hours) to export my three, fifteen second screen recordings.
The next part of the video was to add some Fitbit animations in and music to really bring together the promotional part of the video. I don’t have the animation skills so I borrowed the animations from the end of these actual Fitbit commercials (Find Your Fit 2014 and Find Your Fit 2015). For the music part, I wanted something that was upbeat and convey a sense of activeness, similar to the one in this Fitbit commercial: Introducing Fitbit Inspire and Fitbit Inspire HR. I ultimately decided on Lisztomania by Phoenix as the beat makes you want to get up and move. The final video can be seen below.
Analysis & Reflection
Overall I think the video came together nicely in the one week that I had the chance to work on it. During class critique sessions, others applauded the use of captions and app overlays in order to give context and demonstrate the usage of the app. I was pretty happy with how the video turned out but if I had a chance to create another version of the video, I would first film in the morning so that there was better lighting. Second, I would actually go through the motions of tracking my activity in the scenes so that my finger movement would match the app demonstration.
