Typeit4me: A simple and effective product demo 12 Aug 2005
17 comments Latest by bob
There’s a lot to love in this quicktime product demo video (2:30, 4.4 MB) for Typeit4me.
- It nails the basic functions plus it gives you a few advanced tips and tricks. A great balance of high and low.
- The person demoing the product is the author of the product. I’ve always loved how Steve Jobs demos Apple’s products in his Keynotes. The guy who runs the show also runs the demos. How many CEOs can do that?
- There’s voice. It’s amazing how much it helps. And the guy’s voice is perfect. Calm, clear, and encouraging. His choice of words and tone is stellar. It really makes the demo. “Let’s try it.” “Here we go.” “Save.” “Simple.” “Oops.” “And that’s it, really.”
- The type is large and used sparingly. He gets what his product is about — small blocks of time-saving text, not long paragraphs (although it certainly works for that too).
- The demo makes you feel like you can’t live without the product. Time savings appeals to just about everyone.
- A touch of warmth at the end of the demo really brings it all home.
Well done, Riccardo.
17 comments so far (Jump to latest)
LNJ 12 Aug 05
That was well done and I do feel that I can’t live without the product.
I think what really impressed me (it’s Apple, shouldn’t I just expect to be impressed) was the simple functionality of the product. It was easy and usable. That is a plus. Also, the options that we were shown looked (to me at least) like they made sense.
Thanks for this today. ;-)
Dan Boland 12 Aug 05
What I liked about the video was that he answered the main question I had (being “What if you just want to type “br”?) without particularly addressing it. Very smooth and focused. Plus, the software looks pretty neat, too. Think an iteration will find its way into Writeboard? ;D
Richard 12 Aug 05
TypeIt4Me has been around for a long, long time, since the early Mac days. It’s always been a useful extension although there are UI issues with pieces of it that I wish Riccardo would clean up (some of you designers should offer to make him a better menubar icon).
I’ve demoed it for many years but his quicktime is better and more to the point than anything I ever did. I agree, this is a great example of a quicktime demo.
Stefan Seiz 12 Aug 05
Yes, indeed, very well done. He knows about speed too. Gives you time to look at the screen and follow. That is something i missed in David’s Rails Video (Brazil) in which he switches screens between Safari, Terminal and his Editor so fast, you can’t follow without using the PAUSE funtion of QuickTime.
Brad 12 Aug 05
I had the same feeling about speed, although I thought he moved a little too quickly right near the beginning. But after that, everything was done slowly enough that you could follow it. Very well done video, and a useful product for anyone who doesn’t use Microsoft Word, which has the same feature built-in, or for people who use Word but want the same features available for e-mail and other text programs.
Jase 12 Aug 05
The person demoing the product is the author of the product. … The guy who runs the show also runs the demos. How many CEOs can do that?
A better question is “How many CEOs can do that well?” I’ve worked at a company where the CEO created and narrated the demos — and let’s just say he shouldn’t have. A good CEO knows when it’s appropriate to do something him/herself versus when to delegate it to a better-qualified individual or maybe even an outside resource.
JF 12 Aug 05
Jase, you’re right. It’s always about execution. Anyone can do anything, but doing it well is a whole ‘nother story.
Kim Siever 12 Aug 05
I so want this product. I am mainly a PC user and I have wished for a long time that Outlook would allow multi-line AutoText. At this point, you can only create AutoText for single line phrases.
Adam Michela 12 Aug 05
It’s the accent! ;)
Tim Uruski 12 Aug 05
I found the use of the “Oops!” moment to be very interesting.
I think that this manner of demonstration more closely follows the way people learn, by encountering a problem first and then solving it. Typically a manual outlines what you can do, and never addresses what to do when you find something you think you can’t do.
emm ess eff 12 Aug 05
Perfect timing; I’m just about to create some product demos of my own.
Granted that Apple has a vested interest in promoting QuickTime, but is there a particular reason that 37signals, Rails, etc. feature demos delivered via QuickTime and not Flash? (We’re using Camtasia to capture ours and can deliver in a variety of formats.)
Note to Flash haters: please keep a steady hand on the flame throttle.
Grayson 12 Aug 05
emm ess eff - you can download QT movies, but you cant do anything at all with Flash. QT is easier (in most cases) to implement, too.
Tim 13 Aug 05
This does not pertain to this post but.. why is the actual RSS feed link not displayed on the feed page. It is a link with javascript. I have to remove all the JS to get to the actual link to stick it in my news reader. Just a thought on simplicity!
Tim 13 Aug 05
I retract my previous post.
bob 02 Nov 05
i paused iTunes to watch that….why?