Why websites should all be using video

Video continues to grow in popularity as a provocative way to share information online. When it comes to promoting and selling products or services, a video — or a series of them — can help spell out details, imbuing them with cinematic dimension.

Defining and describing a product or service is a common rationale for using video. Literally, the nuts-and-bolts mechanics of an object can be elegantly represented in a video.

E-commerce websites are especially suited to make use of the benefits that videos afford. Here are current examples of businesses that are using videos well, to enhance the impression of what they’re offering.

Harvest

Harvest is a web-based tool for online time tracking and invoicing. Their homepage invites prospective customers to view a short film. It shows a scenario, starring their product as an integral part of a workflow involving common roles, clearly labeled: designer, project manager, client. Selected features are shown as the scenario progresses, smoothly wrapping up in under two minutes.

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The intuitive and physical nature of Fifty Three’s iPad stylus are fully shown in a video posted on their website. A particularly delightful aspect is the demonstration of lively gestural motions from using the stylus that the video effectively captures.

Nest

Video can be used to virtually provide a product demonstration. The Nest thermostat is a sensor-driven system for the home. Its online video tour shows off the product’s features, particularly focusing on the thermostat’s capabilities to self-learn and automate interior temperature.

Nest also provides customers with a helpful how-to video about installation. The outline consists of four main topics that are concisely narrated as a multimedia slideshow.

Nude Audio

Nude Audio makes portable Bluetooth speakers. When you view a product from its “Move Collection,” you see a video playing behind its description. The video, acting as a background, allows the viewer to gain an idea of the speaker’s scale.

Apple iPhone 6

Video is a staple of Apple’s website. Complementing their keynote presentations and TV ads, certain product areas of their website have sections dedicated to showcasing videos. For example the page for the iPhone 6 displays multiple cues directing users to relevant videos. These include product videos, the TV ads, and the specific keynote speech where the product was first introduced.

Conclusion

Beyond demonstrating functionality, video can help visitors visualize character of a brand and imbue an appropriate mood. Nest’s videos seek to convey the idea of a modern, comfortable home. Apple’s videos famously promote the simple elegance of their products. The videos for Harvest and Pencil show professional people hard at work in pleasant environments.

Every video will help to evoke a tone, crafted to align with the company and their identity or image. When used as part of an expression-making toolkit, video provides another opportunity of discovery, adjacent to other complementary ways of displaying information and visualizing a narrative voice. Videography is a companion method of communication to copywriting, photography, and illustration. What differentiates videography is the potential for moving image and sound to galvanize positive impressions. Every bit of this counts in compelling an eCommerce site’s visitor to consider any and all actions of transaction: signing up, advertising, sponsoring, subscribing, completing checkout. It all counts toward the site’s purpose, the sale.

Nate Burgos

Nate Burgos runs Design Feast, his long-term project dedicated to creative culture. He wrote “Scratch your niche: Fun and fulfillment through Web-based projects.” He also self-published “BROKEN: Navigating the ups and downs of the circus called work.” Follow Nate on Twitter and Facebook.