In this section, we outline the basic design principles that a custom template should adhere to for it to be correctly transferred to Video Studio and have a controlled output and be a great user experience in the editor.
Information structure
To ensure a good user experience a clear information structure is a great start. With this, we mean that it should be clear for the user what the main information in the template is, what’s secondary, and so on. Moreover, at the same time, for certain types of templates, there is no clear distinction between different fields, and then that needs to be expressed as well.
The main reason for creating a clear information structure for the template is to make it possible for seamless switching between templates in the editor. If it is clear that one text field, for instance, is the main one in the template the Video Studio editor can hold that information when switching templates and avoid the user – to as great an extent as possible – having to input text over again. We see to it that all fields are mapped correctly from a technical standpoint but in the description of the template, we need to have that information.
There are three main types of objects in a custom template:
• User editable (text to be written in, images to upload)
• User choosable (pre-existing options that the user selects in some way or another)
• Fixed (non-editable or choosable that always have the same visibility and behavior)
User editable text fields
User editable text fields are placeholder text objects that you want the user to be able to change from the interface in Video Studio. These text fields have two distinct levels of rules that both needs to be specified:
- Static design settings
• Font (defined in the text field within the template)
• Font size (defined in the text field within the template)
• Font color (defined in the text field within the template)
• Character cap (how many letters including spaces are allowed in the text field, needs to be specified by the client)
- Motion design choices
• Build-in/build-out (defined from the build-in/out in the template)
On top of this, you need to define the information role this text field has in the template. Is this the main text in the template or something else? The following roles are well-defined and used throughout Video Studio in many places:
Main: The main text in the template, a headline for an intro slide, the biggest text on a simple slide or the headline on a listicle number – or the first text in a list template. This should act as the primary information in a template.
Secondary: A secondary text used for further information on the subject or as a counterpoint.
Ordered items: For list templates and similar the order of those fields should be specified. We will view the first item as Main and then the rest in descending order from two and on. You need to specify this order in the instruction document.
User interface and programming
There are many options in a template that could help you build easy-to-use interface components for. For example, if you have different static assets in the template that you would like the user to be able to choose between, that could be expressed in a drop-down or a radio button. There could be color choices that you want to lock down to a few options or leave customizable.
As a rule of thumb, these options could be single choices expressed as:
• Radio buttons
• Dropdowns
• Checkboxes (if there is a true/false, just two choices)
Alternatively, they could be combinations of options, such as “if you choose the blue image then the text should be white” in which case we build them into combo options that probably are best expressed as drop-down menus.
We do not allow conditional choices in the editor, so combo options are often the best solution for those cases.