Interactive video, at its most basic, is video that you can interact with. Video is already well established as the most engaging media, whether it’s used for learning, marketing or sales.
Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.
More and more studies show that when you make video interactive, you increase engagement.
Interactive video creates 66% more engagement and 44% longer viewing time.
So, what makes a video interactive?
Interactivity can mean several things: an end card with a clickable link for more information, responsive quizzes or surveys and branching storylines. Here’s an example of one we made earlier. Any video that provides opportunities for user interaction qualifies.
Let’s take a look at a few different types…
Branching storylines
A branching storyline, also described as a branching scenario, allows the viewer to choose alternate pathways in a video or film. The viewer effectively branches off from the main storyline. (Think Sliding Doors, but you get to choose whether Gwyneth Paltrow gets on the train or not.)
The viewer may choose how a character responds or the viewer might be more directly involved in a point-of-view film and have to respond directly to the film characters. All choices determine which branch of the storyline the viewer will follow.
Branching scenarios are popular in learning design because they allow the viewer, or learner, to experience alternate perspectives. They are extremely useful in change management where you want to demonstrate how someone’s behaviour impacts on the wider community or organisation. This type of interactive video can also be used as an assessment, by asking the learner to apply learning to different situations and respond accordingly.
Click and explore: using hotspots
A hotspot is a clickable object or overlay in a video that allows you to add interactivity. Apply hotspots to 2D or 3D video to make areas of a video clickable: jump to another clip, to create a branch, or provide additional information about the object in the video that was selected.
You can also create VR-style, click and explore experiences using hotspots.
Responsive surveys and questionnaires
Interactive video provides 62% interaction rate for quizzes while the average survey response rate is around 33%
You can combine hotspots and story branching to create a survey that produces a personalised result at the end of the video.
You can make it as simple as text slides with interactivity or use animation to make it more dynamic. For a more personal experience, create a video selfie asking viewers a series of questions and then provide a video response for each outcome. This way they’ll get immediate feedback on their selections.
Chances are, the more creative you get, the greater the likelihood your survey completion rate will improve.
Did we mention that interactive video is trackable?
This might be the best part so far. With interactive video, not only do you give your viewers a more interesting and engaging experience, you also get to see how they interact with your content because all the interactions are tracked.
Obviously, this is essential for a survey or questionnaire, but:
- What if you could identify unconscious bias through a short interactive film?
- What if you could see and understand exactly where your corporate message was failing to connect with employees?
- What if you could identify organisational learning gaps easily and redeploy your training budget to address them?
THAT is the true power of interactive video.
Interactivity with a purpose
Interactive video is not exactly a new concept. CD-ROMs and Flash-based content provided video that viewers could interact with. With the introduction of HTML5, its delivery method and creation has changed drastically. You no longer need clunky loading times or software updates to enjoy interactive video. And with Near-Life CREATOR, making interactive videos has never been easier!
Want to start creating interactive video? It’s simple.
- Sign up for a free trial
- Watch our quick-start tutorial guide
- Pick one of our demo scenarios and make your first demo video
- Or upload your own content and make you first interactive video
- Share the video with your audience
The best interactive videos will have well thought-out interactivity: interactivity with a purpose, not just for the sake of it. And the data insights that you can gather from a well-crafted interactive video are invaluable.
If you want to find out more aboure Near-Life CREATOR, book a demo with one of our interactive video experts.