This is really great. I (or my employer) would gladly pay for this. I have two suggestions & critiques:
I think that by eschewing video and audio entirely, you're missing out. As apple has demonstrated, animations and transitions are important to the user experience and user understanding. I would definitely allow screenboard creators to import or upload video and audio clips. Perhaps this could be a feature for advanced/paying users.
Audio is pretty important too. Sometimes, explaining things via voice or with sounds are more efficient than writing. You can convey emotion and emphasis through voice that don't come through via a limited text palette. The web audio api part of HTML5 is getting better and I would investigate using this. Again, for advanced/paying users.
But seriously, thanks for building this. I've wanted something like this for a long time.
I read this as: You think that this alternative-to-screencasts is great, but you'd pay more money if it also made… screencasts. ;)
There's absolutely nothing wrong with liking screencasts. But if you want a screencast - a thing with video and audio clips that conveys information through voice - you want a different product, right? There are existing products that help you make screencasts.
The problem with bolting screencasting features onto this product is that it muddies the message ("we need an alternative to screencasting, one that also does screencasting!") and really threatens to overcomplicate the software, both the UX and the back-end.
Not necessarily. With this product, the user controls the pace at which they proceed through the tutorial. That doesn't mean that it needs to eschew audio and video.
I'm pretty sure the entire site is built on the premise of "I don't like screencasts because I think faster than they talk and get frustrated waiting for them to finish".
Given that premise, audio and video would completely defeat the point.
I think that by eschewing video and audio entirely, you're missing out. As apple has demonstrated, animations and transitions are important to the user experience and user understanding. I would definitely allow screenboard creators to import or upload video and audio clips. Perhaps this could be a feature for advanced/paying users.
Audio is pretty important too. Sometimes, explaining things via voice or with sounds are more efficient than writing. You can convey emotion and emphasis through voice that don't come through via a limited text palette. The web audio api part of HTML5 is getting better and I would investigate using this. Again, for advanced/paying users.
But seriously, thanks for building this. I've wanted something like this for a long time.