Summary: Directing the AI camera for emotional impact | Web design mistakes the same as ever | UX job openings: equal numbers for senior and junior levels
UX Roundup for November 4, 2024. (Ideogram)
Directing the AI Cameraman
2024 has been the year of AI video, and I do not doubt that individual creators (and tiny creative teams) will vastly increase the amount of independent video being produced in the coming years. Much as I like text and words, video is the most powerful and compelling medium.
AI can already produce amazing shots, and AI -AI-generated video will look even better next year and probably be stunning in two years. But the goal of filmmaking is to utilize the “hot” nature of the movie medium to have an emotional impact on the viewer. For that, cinematic technique is as important as good-looking images.
Toby Pointer has a great video showcasing the 10 most important camera movements to create cinematic shots. (YouTube, 20 min. video.) Pointer is an extremely experienced filmmaker, mainly having worked in Canadian television. He emphasizes that the human filmmaker needs to direct the AI camera to achieve the best effects. The AI can’t know what emotional impact you are aiming for.
In this transition period, as we build our understanding of AI video production, we can learn much from traditional filmmaking. We can eliminate the hundreds of technical crew (and overpaid actors) that made traditional movies too expensive for independent creators. But the job they used to do remains, and it is still the director's responsibility to get it right.
Step one for AI video creators is to understand the traditional techniques. Step two will be to develop new creative techniques optimized for AI and the new things we can do when unconstrained by the physical world. But for now, study the classics!
Even if the cameramen are AI and the actress is not real but only pixels, the human creator must direct them to achieve the desired effect. (Ideogram)
Here are Toby Pointer’s 10 camera movements, with suggested prompts for achieving those effects in current AI video-generation products, such as Kling, Runway (his favorite), and Luma Dream Machine. You really should watch his video to gain a full understanding of these techniques and their emotional impact on the viewer. The video is crammed with great examples.
Static Shot: Creates a sense of stability, calmness, or focuses the viewer's attention on a particular subject. Can also build tension and evoke feelings of serenity or anxiety depending on the context. Prompts: "Stationary" or "no camera movement."
Handheld Shot: Injects energy and dynamism, making a scene feel more lively and spontaneous. The unsteadiness keeps the audience on edge, which can be effective in thrillers or horror. Prompts: "Handheld" or "dynamic movement."
Pan Shot: Pivots from side to side to follow a subject or reveal new elements in the frame, adding suspense or surprise. Prompts: "Pan" or "side-to-side movement."
Whip Pan or Swish Pan: A more dynamic version of the pan shot that adds a burst of energy to the scene. Create two distinct shots and use editing software to add a "swish pan transition" between them.
Tilt Shot: Tilts the camera up or down to gradually reveal something like a tall building or a vast landscape. It can also emphasize the scale of a setting, making a character appear small and vulnerable or towering and powerful. Prompts: "Tilt up" or "tilt down."
Dolly Shot: Moves the camera smoothly along a track toward or away from the subject to enhance the emotional depth of a scene. Prompts: "Camera push in" or "smooth pullback."
Push Dolly Shot: Moves closer to the subject to intensify the viewer's connection to the character or action.
Pullback Dolly Shot: Moves away from the subject to create a sense of distance or isolation.
Zoom Shot: Gradually fills the frame with the subject's details to heighten emotion or focus the audience's attention on a specific scene element. Zooming out reveals more of the scene, providing context or emphasizing the environment's vastness, which can create a sense of isolation. Prompts: "zoom in" or "zoom out."
Boom/Crane/Jib Shot: Adds vertical motion and sweeping perspectives, often evoking grandeur or a sense of scale. Prompts: "High angle crane shot" or "sweeping vertical motion."
Boom Shot: Moves the camera up or down smoothly without tilting the lens.
Crane Shot: A more dynamic vertical camera movement often sweeping across a scene from above.
Jib Shot: Similar to crane shots, but usually involve shorter, more controlled movements, adding depth to the composition.
Tracking Shot: The camera moves alongside the subject, usually following their movement to maintain focus on a character or object as it moves through the environment, creating a sense of momentum and continuity. Prompts: "Camera tracking subject" or "front-facing tracking shot."
Leading Shot: The camera moves in front of the subject, leading them through the scene, allowing the audience to anticipate what's ahead while staying connected to the character's emotions or actions.
Point of View (POV) Shot: Places the audience directly into a character's eyes, allowing them to experience the world from that character's perspective. Prompts: "Point of view shot" or "first-person view."
Web Design Mistakes: The Same as Always
Great video where Katie Dill, Head of Design for Stripe, conducts quick design reviews of several websites for various startup companies. I agree with virtually everything she said. (One minor quibble is that she recommended a prominent button to “Get Started” at a point where I would expect most users to want to learn much more about the product before signing up for even a free trial.)
While I like Dill’s design reviews, it’s disheartening that most of the usability problems she pinpoints are the same ones that plagued the web back during the early dot-com days of 1997. 27 years later, and we still haven’t eradicated these lousy design ideas. They are not as common now on more prominent websites, but startups now and startups then seem to fall into the same traps. but startups today often fall into the same traps as those of the past. Modern startup sites might look sleeker than their vintage counterparts, but as soon as you start peeling back the layers, the same old usability problems crawl out of the woodwork.
Here are 11 usability problems discussed in the video:
Communicate Value Proposition Quickly and Clearly: Websites should immediately convey what they offer and who it's for. For example, while Taive’s headline “Give Your TVs Superpowers” was attention-grabbing, it didn’t clearly explain the product. The subline clarified it was for restaurants, but users needed to read that far to understand the value.
Prioritize Above-the-Fold Content: Essential information and a clear call to action should be visible without scrolling. In contrast, Meo Health’s above-the-fold section relied on a long scrolling animation and the vague instruction “Scroll to explore,” delaying the key information. (In general, if you need to give instructions for how to use a homepage, you probably have a usability problem and should fix it in a redesign and not by adding documentation.)
Use Clear and Concise Headlines: Headlines should be easy to read and quickly convey the main message.
Targeted Visuals: Images and graphics should be relevant to the target audience and support the overall message. For example, Taive’s logo, featuring a TV cut in half, didn’t align with the brand’s message of enhancing TVs.
Concise and Scannable Content: Users often skim websites; therefore, information should be presented in a concise and easily digestible manner.
Clear Call to Action: The desired action for users should be prominent and clearly stated.
Mobile Responsiveness: Websites should be designed to adapt and function seamlessly across various devices, including mobile phones and tablets.
Consistent Branding: Maintain consistency in typography, color palettes, and overall design elements to reinforce brand identity.
Avoid Scroll Hijacking: Allow users to control their scrolling experience rather than forcing them to follow a predetermined path.
Every Element Should Add Value: Each design element should have a clear purpose and contribute to the overall message. For example, Signas’s inclusion of the phrase “These are the trusted companies” was redundant, as the client logos already conveyed that message. Taive’s glowing buttons, color boxes in the navigation, and unnecessary arrows didn’t add value and created visual clutter.
Consider the Entire User Journey: Consider the steps users have taken before reaching the website and ensure a smooth and logical flow.
Mobile responsiveness was not an issue in 1997 since we barely had feature phones. But 10 of these 11 issues could have been included in the design reviews I did for Internet World magazine back in the day. Annoying. Watch the video to avoid making these design mistakes for the 28th year.
Computer screens are thinner now than when I studied Web usability at Sun Microsystems, but reviewing startup websites for usability problems was about the same in 1997 as in 2024. (Leonardo)
UX Job Openings: Equal Numbers for Senior and Junior Levels
Artiom Dashinsky posted a set of data from TrueUp (a hiring platform) analyzing job openings for designers in 2023 and 2024, divided by the requested seniority level. Roughly speaking, 40% of recent job postings were for entry or mid-level staff and 42% were for senior staff. (The remainder were for either interns or for leads, directors, or even a few VPs.)
The exact percentages are unimportant, since the data set is likely a little weak, being based on advertised openings, rather than actual openings. (Some companies may never advertise an opening, but simply hire a good intern from last year. Others may advertise many times before they land a good enough UX lead. Every single job I have had — other than two internships — were based on headhunting or personal contacts. None of them were ever advertised.)
However, the rough numbers are clear: there are about equally many jobs for senior and junior staff. This is in contrast to the lament you often see on social media, where junior UX staff complain that all the jobs are for senior staff.
Furthermore, consider that there are about 2.7 million UX professionals in the world right now. 1.3 million of these people entered the profession during the last 5 years and 1.4 million entered in 2019 or earlier.
Growth of the UX profession over the last 45 years. Because this was such a small and oppressed field until recently, there are very few UX people with truly extensive experience. We didn’t reach 1M people until 2017, and we will be at 3M in a few months.
What do we mean by “senior staff?” Personally, I think it takes about 10 years to become fully experienced in UX because there are so many details to get right. However, it seems that the more common cut-off point is around 5 years. (0-2 years are considered entry-level; 3-5 years are mid-level, and more than 5 years are somewhat senior.)
If we go by those 5 years, then there are about equally many junior and senior UX professionals in the world, and there are also about equally many job openings for the two levels. A perfect match! No need to complain.
However, if we go by the more reasonable estimate that it takes 10 years to be considered truly senior, then there are 2.1 million junior or mid-level UX professionals in the world and only 0.5 million truly senior. With this analysis, about 4x as many junior/mid-level people per job opening than there are senior staff per job opening.
In this second analysis, it is indeed much easier for senior staff to get jobs.
Which of the two analyses best reflect the truth? I don’t know, but I suspect that most companies consider “senior” to start around 5 years, and if so, the first analysis is the most accurate.