Episode 95

Animation, Video, and the Power of Visual Explanation | Lee Lefever

What makes a solid explainer video? The kind that gets your point across fast, without confusion, and equips the audience with all they need to know.

There are many components that go into a good explainer video. Lee Lefever, Co-Founder of Common Craft, breaks them down in this episode of The Visual Lounge.

Common Craft excels in creating simple animated videos to explain concepts suitable for use in online presentations, courses, classrooms, and more. With a refreshingly simple animation style, Common Craft’s videos focus totally on the audience and the content while also telling a story in a unique way.

As well as being the Co-Founder of Common Craft, Lee is also the author of two books – ‘Big Enough’ and ‘The Art of Explanation.’ He’s worked with clients such as Google, Intel, Lego, Microsoft, and more.

This episode covers a lot of ground on everything you need to know to craft a successful explainer video. You’ll hear why it all begins with the audience, why keeping it simple is usually best, and how to tell a great story.

Learning points from the episode include:

  • Why explainer videos should appeal to a general audience
  • Why videos need to start with the audience in mind
  • How to use familiar language to get your point across
  • Why videos should aim to be “low noise” to avoid cognitive load
  • How to use storytelling in your videos
  • Why you should start speaking slower in your videos

Important links and mentions:

Learn more about the TechSmith Academy here.

About the Podcast

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The Visual Lounge
Discussions about the power of visuals and videos and how to make them even better.

About your host

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Matthew Pierce

Matthew Pierce, Learning & Video Ambassador from TechSmith Corporation, has created videos for learning and marketing for over a decade. He is the lead behind TechSmith Academy, a free platform teaching video and image creation for business, which has been used by tens of thousands of users. He is the host of The Visual Lounge Podcast from TechSmith, which streams live on Youtube and LinkedIn weekly. Matthew is a regular speaker at multiple learning and development-focused conferences and is a regular contributor to various training publications. Connect with him on LinkedIn.