PowerNap
For my video prototype, I tried to portray the typical situation in which the PowerNap app would be used. The user, “Josh”, is seen working and expresses their tiredness and lack of concentration. When asked why he doesn’t take a nap, Josh explains that he always naps for too long and ends up feeling more tired. I introduce the PowerNap app and explain how it lets the user set an alarm for a few minutes, plays music, and then gently wakes the user with the chosen noise. Next, Josh prepares for his nap on the phone I hand him and goes to sleep. Background music plays until the alarm chime comes in, waking up Josh.
In planning out the video, I broke down the video into stages, with each stage fulfilling a different purpose of the video. The sketch below illustrates the stages that I envisioned for the video. The title slide is meant to quickly introduce the app’s title and icon. The initial scene shows Josh trying to work, displaying his need for the app. My brief dialogue explains the app and provides context for how Josh will use the app in the next scene. I decided it would be more effective and natural for the viewer to watch the user using the nap feature, so I chose to limit the amount of explanation dialogue. The video contains the background “sleep music” during the sleeping stage and I instructed Josh to sleep until he heard the music transition into an alarm. The final stage briefly plays the alarm chime and shows Josh waking up.
While I think my scenario was acted out well, there was definitely ways for me to better convey the use of the app in the video. I think my use of sound and music helped effectively convey the sleeping scene and alarm scene. One notable point of improvement was the explanation of the app’s features. I had a difficult time balancing the 60-second time constraint in this project. I ended up cutting out scenes with a more thorough explanation of how the app works. While this made the video more natural and less wordy, it also became less clear how the app is used. Next time, I would try to better manage the timing so that this aspect is improved.