Introducing Video Documentation
at Bosch BT

Problem

Bosch BT sells a range of surveillance cameras and software to manage them, which is called BVMS (Bosch Video Management System). Since BVMS aims to be a solution for everyone, from small shop owners to video operators at an airport, it has a lot of different functionalities and is rather complex.
In fact, the complexity is so high that customers can book specialized training courses to get their use cases optimally covered. The documentation is a PDF with more than 300 pages and describes what each and every button does, rather than focusing on tasks. That might leave the amateur video controller with more questions than before. To fill this gap, I came up with a concept for user-centered how-to videos.

Goals

The project had two goals:

• Create videos covering the most frequent tasks to support new users.
• Enable all technical writers at Bosch to produce how-to videos for their products.

Process

The project took about 4 months from collecting use cases to the first upload. I'll explain the process and which problems I had faced in the following paragraphs:

1. Gather use cases
   To create a backlog of possible videos, my supervisor spoke to the product manager, customer support, trainers, and local market managers.
2. Select use cases
   Together with the product manager, my supervisor selected the most important use cases. I worked on the use case: 'As a configurator, I want to set up motion recording for nights and weekends so that I can save storage'. With motion recording, the camera only writes to a hard drive when it detects a moving object. The video walks the user through a configuration scenario for nights and weekends.
3. Write a script
   

   

   A script helps to record and edit more efficiently because you need to think about the concrete steps in the correct order. My template contains four columns:
   1. Instruction: This column mainly serves as guidance for the creator. I inserted the steps from the documentation to outline the general structure.
   2. Comment: This column provides additional information that is not obvious from what you see on screen. I placed callouts in the video based on the comments.
   3. Sequence: The sequence column is used for the actual recording. U means user and describes the steps I performed during the recording session. S stands for system and describes outcomes.
   4. CC: CC is short for closed caption. I provided subtitles so that an audio file can be recorded if desired. Furthermore, search engines can index subtitles, and therefore, promote findability.
4. Create and edit video
   Before recording, I made sure I had the necessary equipment (camera, encoder, and storage). After a dry run, I recorded one chunk at a time to make editing afterward easier. I used Camtasia to record and edit the video, as it was designed to create screencasts efficiently. The editing process was straightforward, so I won't go into detail here. Feel free to reach out if you want to know more.

   

5. Create a style guide, templates, and work aids
   There was no specific style guide for how-to videos, which is why I created a new one based on Bosch-specific design rules. To facilitate the video creation process, I provided a template for the script, as well as reusable elements for Camtasia, see fig. 4.

   

   Since my goal was to enable every tech writer to create how-to videos, I created an in-depth video creation guide on the internal wiki. It covered everything from writing the script to basic editing techniques and advice on using the style guide and templates.
6. Ask for feedback and incorporate it
   I was asking multiple people to provide feedback to get many different aspects. I included my supervisor, the product manager, UX designers, marketers, and users.
7. Final upload
   Since the marketing team was in charge of the YouTube channel, I handed over the video, the closed caption file, and suggestions for hashtags. Feel free to have a look at the final video.

Implementation challenges

Since I introduced how-to videos as an addition to the existing docs, I had to do some groundwork and encountered these challenges:

• No audio:
  Initially, the product manager wanted the videos to be as low-cost as possible. Therefore, he did not plan for narration. A user test that I conducted, revealed that half of the users didn't miss audio, whereas the other half felt that it might be useful. After some research, I found that text-to-speech processing using an AI voice would be a possible solution, as it is fast, produces consistent results, and the only cost is licensing. Due to budgeting, Bosch decided not to purchase a text-to-speech license. Nevertheless, the closed caption boosts findability in search engines.
• Issues with Camtasia 2018:
  A bug in the software randomly drops one to four frames at the beginning of a screen recording. Since the department hadn't bought a new version of Camtasia yet, I worked around the problem by starting the recording and doing nothing for the first few seconds. This way, you create a margin from which you can cut out the black frames without losing important information.
• Consistency:
  Another issue was consistency. Since the videos are customer-facing documentation, a uniform look and feel is very important. However, I discovered that some stakeholders were already creating how-to videos, but were using a different template or no template at all.

Impact

I reached the first goal, as the video provides a step-by-step tutorial for new users.
The second goal was to enable tech writers across Bosch BT to create their own videos which I did by documenting the video creation process. Furthermore, I facilitated video creation by providing video editing templates. However, it did not lie within my power to decide how many videos should be produced, since the managers are in charge of capacity planning.
I also tested the how-to video in a documentation user test. The screenshot below illustrates the potential applications and benefits of this new form of documentation. The customer support even turned my video into a knowledge base article (long after I was gone).

Lessons learned

Communication is key. Getting everyone on board requires a lot of talk and negotiation. Sometimes, my stakeholders would feel left out of the conversation because I wanted to push forward when they needed more context. I learned to address all involved stakeholders and listen to them. This way, I overcame internal resistance and got valuable feedback.

Version control is a challenge. To speed up the video creation process, I provided templates. During this project, I focused a lot on the editing process but did not think of a workflow for updating templates. As it turns out, importing and using templates in Camtasia 2018 is a manual process. When a template changes, you need to replace all elements by hand - a tedious process. In retrospect, asking questions like "How to incorporate changes in tool XYZ?" and "How will I make sure everyone uses the same version?" would have gone a long way.