Just A Test Demo — 2

Several application developers have added in-webpage video demos of their programs. I’m surprised that not everyone has done so. Instead of asking a potential customer to download a trial version (or worse, to just buy it) and then install it, this approach lets them see what it’s like to use the application without any effort on their part. While more complex programs can’t be completely demonstrated in a short clip, it can still give viewers a sense of how easy it is to use, how quickly it operates etc. All they have to do is watch the (auto playing) video, which means that almost all of them will.

After watching the demo, the potential customer is (hopefully) sold or at least interested in the product. At this point, they might be willing to go through the steps of installing a trial version or even buy it.

CloudApp (https://www.getcloudapp.com) is able to demo the entire app on their site. After watching it, there’s no uncertainty as to how the application works and you can see just how easy and quick it is.

Xamarin (https://xamarin.com/studio#designers), has a video clip showcasing their GUI builder. After watching it you get a better sense of how it works and you’re left with the impression that it’s a well made tool – on par with the development tools offered by the platform vendors.

Sublime Text (http://www.sublimetext.com) has 6 clips showcasing its various features. While it isn’t enough to demonstrate every aspect of the editor, it’s enough to give viewers a sense of what it’s like. It’s obviously heavily keyboard driven, powerful and more text editor than IDE. It also shows the viewer some of the more unique aspects of the editor, like multiple cursors and the ‘Goto Anything’ tool. It’s not only highly informative, but showing it’s coolest features in action also gets viewers pretty excited about the product.