12 Rules for Educational Videos

This guide will focus on methods that will help educate viewers with video. They can make it entertaining and engaging too, but that is not the goal.

I’ve grouped these methods into 12 rules which I have learned from making hundreds of explainer and educational videos in the last 15 years.

I invite you to apply them.

Use them as a guide for planning or a reference when making your next educational video. 

Rule 1: Remove all unnecessary material.

Pictures, videos, graphics, text, if they are not adding anything they’re distracting.

Ditch them.

Remember you are educating not entertaining.

Draw your audience’s attention only to what matters. Eliminate the rest. 

Rule 2:  Create clear organized layouts. 

Give yourself 5 seconds to look at a scene.

If you can understand it, good.

If not change the layout.

Follow design principles to make each scene of your video clear and easy to figure out.

You want clarity not more complexity. 

Rule 3:  Use motion to draw attention.

Your audience will always be drawn to look at elements that move.

Take advantage of this.

Don’t just show your process, animate the steps.

Don’t just display charts, animate the data. 

Rule 4:  Make movement intentional.

Motion adds to the story when it makes sense.

When it doesn’t, it’s just distraction.

This is particularly true with transitions.

Remove it, change it, just have it make sense and reinforce your message.

Rule 5:  Give time for comprehension.

If you need people to read the text, give them time to read it.

If you need them to understand a point, speak clearly and slowly.

Pause if you need to.  It doesn’t make your video less engaging.

How long should your text stay on the viewer’s screen? At least twice as long as it takes to read through twice. 

Rule 6: Use images and narration over images and words.

Written words compete for the same attention as images.

Spoken words don’t. Our brain processes them differently.

Educate your audience better by letting their eyes process images and their ears process words. This is based on Mayer’s Modality Principle which says that we learn best from a combination of visuals and spoken words, or in the case of video is your voiceover, rather than from visuals and written words.

Rule 7:  Place words and images near each other.

Avoid using legends or callouts when labelling parts of an image.

Place the word beside or on the image itself.

This reduces eye movement and improves comprehension. 

Rule 8:  Treat words as images.

When you absolutely need to use words in your scenes, treat them like images.

Make them big.

Make them bold.

Make them move.

Make them draw attention.

Rule 9:  Use a conversational tone.

People respond better when they’re engaging with a person not an organization.

Make your videos sound like a conversation.

Write like you talk.

Minimize the jargon.

Talk like a friend. 

Rule 10:  Use a friendly, human voice.

AI voices maybe a trend, but nothing beats an actual human voice.

Human speech have little nuances that AI can’t replicate.

Hire a voice artist and instruct them to speak in a friendly tone.

You can’t do that with every AI.

Rule 11:  Show the speaker or the presentation, not both.

Don’t show the presentation and speaker side by side, they compete for attention.

Show only what matters.

You don’t even need to show the speaker at all. Unless they’re using their body to drive a point. 

Rule 12:  Add only subtle music and sound effects.

Music and sound effects can add to the appeal of the video.

But they can also be a distraction.

Use music and sounds that are subtle, complements the mood of the video with no vocal elements.