Some users might find the videos to be distracting while trying to read the Bible. Have a setting for the user to chose:
- Show videos as preview thumbnail
- Show videos as just the title
- Do not show videos
We should allow the App Builder to define the default value for this user setting when the app is installed.
There could be a button to switch this setting in the app bar, in the navigation drawer, or the settings page depending how often the user might want to switch between these settings. Where do you think it should go?
I’m at my limit of votes right now, but I would vote for this. I’m not sure where the best place to put it would be, but maybe in the navigation drawer?
David
I think as a default, videos should be shown as a preview thumbnail, similar to how they appear now. However some improvements are needed in the settings and behavior of videos and how they play.
There should be a more app builder friendly setting for the width and alignment of the video thumbnail. Currently the width style setting must be added in CSS. The alignment is set with the text-align: setting in div.video-blockstyle. This is confusing, since text is not being aligned, but a window frame. These settings would be more easily adjusted if located on the main Video category of the SAB project.
When a app user taps a video frame once, a second thumbnail image appears, and the user must click a second time to start the video. The video plays in the window, and the user must press the full screen button to see the video full screen. This should be improved so the user only has to tap the video window once and the video starts in full screen mode. If a 2-step procedure is necessary, then it should be changed so when first tapped, the video window enlarges to be full column width/full screen, and the 2nd tap starts play.
The first thumbnail image shown in a video frame is set in the Video Settings Section-Add Video Tool-Thumbnail Tab . The Thumbnail image shown after the first click is the Thumbnail image set in the Youtube settings (or other video library) for that video file. If you own the YouTube account where the videos are hosted, you can change the second thumbnail image to match the first if you like. If you cannot change the YouTube thumbnail, then you may want to change the first thumbnail to match the second thumbnail to avoid users being confused by 2 different thumbnails.
Ads may be a problem if you use videos hosted on YouTube. Depending on the phone and location, when user click the video, a YouTube ad may play for several seconds, forcing the user to click the small Skip Ad button after about 5 seconds. Some YouTube ads are quite distracting or inappropriate, so it may be worth hosting your videos elsewhere (Vimeo?) Any free video hosting out there without ads?
If you have used videos in your app and asked users how they found them helpful, please share with me (or make a new post in this group) what you have learned. Thanks, roger_green@sil.org