1. How to Create a Screencast
to Justify Design Choices
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Deliverable 2:
English 317: Technical Writing
2. 2
Table of Contents
About Screencasts ...............................................................................................................................3
How to Create Your Screencast Design Justification.....................................................................4
Subject, Audience, and Purpose.......................................................................................................5-6
Writing a Script.......................................................................................................................................7-16
What Not to Say in Your Script and Voice-Over..............................................................................17-18
Avoid Rambling.....................................................................................................................................19
Moving the Cursor While Recording the Screencast......................................................................20
Continue to Apply Presentation Speaking Style Concepts...........................................................21
3. About Screencasts
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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.
4. How to create your screencast.
• You need a microphone, and the one in your computer will
be fine for this project.
• Your screencast must be hosted on a site that allows users to
play it without having to download the file.
• I recommend using Screencast-O-Matic (Mac users also
need to download Soundflower to record) or Jing (all users).
These tools also have a means of hosting your file. See tools
and resources for more information.
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5. Screencast:
subject, audience, and purpose.
• The subject of your screencast will be justifying the
design choices you made when creating the
infographic.
• The audience will be a hypothetical project team.
• Your purpose will be to clearly connect your design
choices to principles of graphic design.
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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 infographic,
the transferable skill with this part of the project is
being able to communicate in professional
environments where visual design needs are being
discussed/planned.
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7. To make those connections clear, write a script and
practice it.
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The goal is not to try to
sound like a professional
broadcaster, but to
practice and develop
clarity in your presentation
speaking style.
8. Continue to apply the principles of effective prose style
when writing the script but adapt these for the ear by
keeping sentences short.
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You should be able to say
each sentence in your
script in a single breath.
9. Your script will need:
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Introduction
About 10 seconds.
Key Points
Up to 3
minutes
Conclusion
About 10 seconds.
Timing
Your screencast is internal
communication, so the audience
would be expecting it. No need
for a highly formal introduction.
The key points of the
screencast should be logically
structured and clearly move
between one part of the
infographic to another as you
justify design choices.
Keep the conclusion
simple. Inviting
audience to ask
questions or give you
feedback, and
remember to thank
them.
10. Focus the Script to the Audience
• Your screencast is justifying design choices to a
project team.
So keep the introduction short and informal:
• Hi, team. Here is my justification for the design
choices I made when creating the infographic
we need.
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11. What your audience knows and doesn't know.
• They would know what an infographic is, and they
would know the target audience, purpose, thesis,
stats, and data story you are telling, so don't waste
time talking about these things.
• What they wouldn't know is the justification for the
choices you made in executing your design nor
would they know the graphic design principles.
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12. As you work on your script.
• Keep in mind that timing may vary depending on
how many of the graphic design principles you
needed to apply in your infographic.
• You will need to briefly define each design
principle you have applied and then explain how
you applied it.
• Refer to the slidedoc on graphic design principles.
You may use this same wording in your script.
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13. Example:
• The principle of proximity means aligning related
design elements together, so the viewer will
perceive them as one visual unit.
I applied proximity in this section of my
infographic where these icons are aligned as a
group.
As you speak move your mouse to show viewers what
you are referring to in your infographic.
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14. If you used a template, your design
justification needs to point out what
you changed and connect those
changes to the design principles.
If you left some aspects of the
template "as is," your justification
needs to explain WHY by
connecting to design principles.
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15. Example:
This section of the template I used followed the principle
of alignment and proximity. According to these principles,
viewers perceive items as being one unit when they are
aligned close to one another.
I changed the icons from cars to houses, however, to fit
the data story I was telling. My icons follow the principle of
closure which means. . . .
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16. What to say in the conclusion.
• In a typical screencast for a team, it would be
standard to say something like:
• Example: If you have any questions, let me know.
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17. Don't say silly statements that are not
connected to a graphic design principle.
• 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.
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18. Don't waste time
• talking about what infographics are,
• what tool(s) you used to create yours,
• why you chose a specific size,
• the audience, thesis, purpose of your infographic,
• what statistics you used and why,
or
• anything else that is not related to connecting
your design choices to design principles.
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19. Writing a clear and focused script will
help you avoid silly rambling.
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Rambling.
Ramblers often just focus on talking about the purpose of the
infographic and/or justify design choices by saying what they thought
looked good, and/or naming a graphic design principle and then just
saying stuff like “as you can see I applied the principle of color theory
in my color choices.” All of which is just plain silly.
20. Using the Mouse while Recording
After you define a graphic principle, move the
mouse on the screen to demonstrate with your
cursor where you applied it.
Then move to the next principle etc.
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21. Delivery: continue to apply these concepts
when recording your voice-over narration.
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• Vocal variety: pitch, tone,
volume, and rate.
• Pausing.
• Diction
Exercises to help you improve
your speaking style can be found
under Tools & Resources.
