Home Care Direct provide families and carers with the means to manage their relationships without the need of an Intermediary agency. To do this they have developed an app that is used by both carers and families to find each other and establish a working relationship that is uniquely tailored to them. This eliminates many of the inefficiencies of home care provision in Ireland, including high costs, lack of continuity in care, and the difficulty of recruiting careers.
Mersus had already completed two animated explainer videos for Home Care Direct, which detailed an overview of the Home Care Direct system in a concise manner for both families and carers.
Pleased with the explainer videos, and having established a strong working relationship with Mersus, Home Care Direct approached the team again to produce a series of instructional videos using animated motion graphics to show users how to navigate the Home Care Direct app and login area.
With the brief established, the Mersus team conducted extensive research into the workings of the Home Care Direct app. Home Care Direct sent us on a number of screenshots of various screens within the app, but in order to fully get to grips with the processes involved, the team were given user accounts with which to explore all aspects of the application.
While the idea of using screen capture technology to record the use of the app was explored, the team ultimately found that they could get far better results by digitising the Interface. With conventional screen capture technology, the resolution of the outputted video is limited. This makes it difficult to highlight certain areas of the screen without sacrificing video quality. As these videos are instructional, clarity was one of the utmost importance. With this in mind, the Mersus team decided to digitise the Interface.
By recreating the user Interfaces in vector form, we can zoom down to much greater detail without losing any quality. While more time consuming than screen capture, digitisation really opens the playing field when it comes to motion graphics.
Having established a working method, the Mersus team set about the considerable task of producing ten interface videos for Home Care Direct. The scripts were provided by the client. We recorded the voiceovers in house and the videos were then produced using these as a guide for timing.
The Mersus team made use of the digitised interfaces to dynamically represent user interactivity. Animated button presses, dropdown menus and more proved to be an engaging way of portraying the information required. For the desktop login area, we simulated mouse movement and interaction on screen. For the mobile version, we showed the app situated on a smartphone instead. Finally, each video was rounded off by the inclusion of music and sound effects in the form of mouse clicks and other Interface sounds.
The team created 10 videos in all. The turnaround time was approximately 3-4 days for each 2 minute video. The Mersus team went to great lengths to provide a curated guide to using the website and application which is designed specifically for the convenience and ease of use of the user.
With the proliferation of video as a means to promote services, we were delighted to find a company extremely skilled in crafting the required message through video. Mersus’s skills lie not only in their level of technical ability but in their capacity to understand the requirement and then structure the message for ultimate effect. – Julian Douglas, Director,Home Care Direct.