Created: 2017.06.12
An important part of working remote gigs is being able to communicate technical issues in a non-technical way.
This is necessary because:
- it is not easy to meet the client in person, to talk them through an issue
- the client is often not a native English speaker
- the client is often business savvy, rather than technically savvy
- streaming screen sharing is done on-the-fly, without time for adequate rehearsal
But it also comes with some caveats:
- spoken narration may need to be transcribed for captioning and/or translation
- client may misinterpret the video, as they watch it 'unsupported'
- large files are slow to upload
- video hosting costs
My wish list was:
- unlimited recording time
- visual feedback when I click on something
- onscreen display of any keyboard input
- controls to zoom in on the area that I'm interacting with
- not too expensive
Having spent a lot of time over the past few months watching videos produced by Wes Bos, I initially investigated the software that he uses, ScreenFlow.
ScreenFlow is powerful software, in that it includes an Adobe Premiere type editor for editing recordings down afterwards. I didn't really need it for that, but I was keen to see whether it had the other features on my wishlist.
My initial impression of the product website and UI was that it was an established and somewhat 'legacy' product. The site had a very old vibe about it. This was unappealing and not aided by the high cost of the software.
Additionally, I couldn't get past first base with ScreenFlow. The trial version is supposed to be fully functional (with a watermark) but the options palettes were greyed out and my cry for help on the forum went unanswered.
While I am the first to admit that I am getting impatient in my old age, the onus is on companies to make their software easier for everyone to use. So I really try to avoid 'rewarding' bad UX and customer service by buying products that don't work well for me. So, I let this one go.
The Icecream Screen Recorder comes in two versions - Free and Premium.
The free version has a recording limit of 60 seconds, so was basically unusable for my needs.
Despite having the Animate mouse option turned on, the standard MacOS black circle still appeared, so perhaps the Quicktime option was overriding Icecream's option.
I also couldn't find any controls for zooming in this product.
As I wasn't having much luck with paid software, I decided to try Quicktime. Despite being bundled free with MacOS, the software met several of my criteria:
- unlimited recording time
- option to show mouse clicks
The mouse click feedback was a bit ugly though, just a quick flash of a thickly bordered circle.
Mouseposé puts a halo around the mouse and dims down the rest of the screen, kind of like a lightbox modal.
Unfortunately there is no trial version, so it is a case of buyer beware. I took the plunge and am happy to report that the software seems usable and reliable.
When the user stops moving the mouse (timeout configurable), the current window is highlighted. This is great for guiding the watcher's attention from one part of an application to another, although I assume that it does not treat a modal the same way as a UI window.
Mouseposé also has an option to show text onscreen, but I configured this to only show key combinations, as typing text strings only shows one or two characters at a time.
There is no option to zoom the focus, only to highlight the window.
Luckily the MacOS Accessibility Preferences actually contain a Zoom mode. A key combination toggles a zoom effect, which is based on the current cursor position. It is really simple to use and with practice offers lots of control. Thanks Apple!
I think it will take some practice to be tutor and camera operator at the same time, but I look forward to making this combination work to get my message across loud and clear.
fn + F1- Toggle Mouseposé mouse trackingCONTROL + COMMAND + n- New Quicktime Screen Recording (when Quicktime has focus)OPTION + COMMAND + 8- Toggle accessibility zoom at current cursor position
