Typically, when a client has approached me with an idea for a website video, they tend to tell me that they’re picturing something in the neighborhood of 2-3 minutes. When they put pen to paper they tend to write a 4-5 minute script. It’s tough to reel our ideas down to the right length, but I have a few insights to help you steer your videos to the perfect duration.

First, one ground rule. “Watchabilty” is defined by the percentage of people that make it to a certain point in your video. I use 50% as my gold standard. So if I create a video and less than 50% of viewers make it to, say, the 6 minute mark, that tells me that my video should be less than 6 minutes. Read more →

UX Magazine recently published the article “Should We Focus on User Experience?” where they make a strong argument for taking some of the focus off of designing the ideal user experience and refocusing on creating positive memories associated with your site. The argument being that if a user can’t recall having had a positive time on your site, the design of your site has done little to earn a second visit.

Does The Premise Hold Up?

The answer comes down to this… 1 hour after leaving your site, some memory is left with your visitor; but what about 24 hours later? Did your site do enough to inspire them to noodle you around in their heads? Enough to make it stick? If not, then a tree has fallen in the forest, but no one stuck around to hear it strike the ground. The article explains it well:

In an almost dictatorial way, our remembering self selectively picks what parts of an experience it wants to remember. And later, it makes its decisions based on those memories.

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