English 313 Project 2, Slidedoc 3. Kirchmeier's Section Spring 2020. Original design by Karen Thompson.

1. How to Create the Screencast to Justify
Your PSA Design Choices

2. About Screencasts 3
How to Create Your Screencast 4
Subject, Audience, and Purpose of Your Screencast 5-6
Writing the Script: Introduction 6
Writing the Script: Body 7-11
What NOT to do 12-13
How to justify design choices if you used a template 14
Table of Contents
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3. Screencasts capture all or a portion of a computer
screen while the author narrates what the viewer is
seeing in a voice-over audio.
Screencasts are used by businesses and
organizations for a wide variety of purposes and
viewed by both internal and external audiences.
About Screencasts
3

4. You need a microphone, and the one in your
computer will be find for this project.
I recommend using Screencast-O-Matic. But
you will find a link to alternatives under Tools
and Resources.
Position the screen capture feature over your
file and leave some room so you can scroll as
you talk.
It takes some time to get used to using the
mouse, scrolling down, etc. as you talk, so it’s
a good idea to practice several times before
recording.
Your screencast should be 3 minutes or less
but going a bit over is fine.
How to create your screencast.
4

5. The subject of your screencast will be justifying the design choices
you made when creating the PSA poster or billboard.
The audience will be the Associated Students of the University of
Idaho (ASUI).
Your purpose will be to clearly connect your design choices to
principles of graphic design.
Subject, audience, and purpose of your screencast.
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6. You are practicing how to articulate design
choices using the language of graphic
design.
Even should you never create another PSA
poster or billboard, you will have gained
practice in being able to communicate in
professional environments where visual
design needs are being discussed/planned.
Why you have been given this context.
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7. Your screencast is justifying design
choices to ASUI who is expecting to
receive this information.
ASUI would know the topic and target
audience, so you only need a very brief
introduction such as:
• Here is my justification for the design
choices I made when creating the PSA
for your target audience.
What the client would not know are the
principles of visual design.
Writing the Script: Introduction
7

8. Body: Design Justification. The design justification
should include the following information:
• The rhetorical situation: why is this an important
message to send to the audience (remember, the
audience is the U of I community)?
• The message you wanted to send: after the
audience sees the PSA, what awareness do you
want them to have, and what action do you want
them to take?
• The frame you decided to use: did you use a
positive, negative, or neutral frame and why did
you make that decision?
• The graphic design principles you used: discuss
at least three graphic design principles you
learned about in the course materials on
BbLearn, and how did using these graphic
design principles make your PSA successful?
(That is, how did the graphic design principles
you used help you to create a message that will
make the audience aware of the issue and take
the action you want them to take?)
Writing the Script: Body
8

9. The principle of proximity means
grouping related elements together, so
the viewer perceives them as one
visual unit.
I applied proximity in this section of my
PSA poster where these icons are
aligned as a group.
As you speak move your mouse to show
viewers what you are referring to in your
PSA.
Example
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10. I used red because I really like red. As
you can see, how I used red here
really pops out and makes the viewer
pay attention.
Don’t say silly statements not connected to a
graphic design principle.
10

11. what PSAs are or how they differ from
advertising,
what tool(s) you used to create yours,
why you chose a specific size,
or anything else that is not related to
your rhetorical and design choices.
Don’t waste your client’s time by talking about
11

12. The conclusion should be brief as in the
following example:
• Let me know if you have any questions
about my design choices.
Writing the Script: Conclusion
12

13. Once you have a script, open your file
and launch the screen capture tool to
do a test recording.
Choose a standard size and position
the tool over your file.
Check that your computer’s wallpaper
is not interfering with the screencast.
Play your test recording back to be
certain the size you have chosen is
clear enough. You may need to do a
few tests of the standard screen
capture sizes to find the one that’s best.
How to use the screen capture tool.
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