Short read: motivate staff with animation

Whether you need to teach staff new procedures at work or simply want to motivate them, animated video is an engaging and effective approach. Animated explainer videos make use of striking visuals, illuminating sounds, text and narration to express ideas quickly and activate an emotional response from the audience. 

Because animated videos combine emotional and logical stimuli, they are effective tools for rousing attention, improving memory and cultivating learning. According to Web Marketing Group, 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. Findings also show that 40% of people respond better to visual information than plain text.

The most common types of animations are: transformations, in which the properties of objects such as size, shape and colour alter; translation, in which objects move from one location to another; and transitions, in which objects disappear or appear.

Your animated explainer video might include humour, adventure or just be a happy story. To achieve the desired emotional response, thought needs to go into all areas from the storyboard to characters to voiceover. Animated agents — characters that show enthusiasm and useful gestures — have become very popular in educational animations. A friendly or recognisable voiceover can also make a lot of difference to an animated video’s appeal.

A popular use of animations is to show things that can’t be shown easily in real life, such as dynamic content and the interaction of invisible phenomena. From illustrating the performance of cells in a disease to showing the benefits of a computer programme, anything can be simulated in an animated video. This facilitates quick understanding and is usually less tedious than learning through reading text.

When it comes to explaining new processes and policies at work, creating animated characters that represent each role (or even employee, if your company is small) is an effective and fun approach. Staff can even be presented as superheroes. If your internal communications explainer video is enjoyable, staff will discuss it between themselves, improving retention.

Animation is exceptionally versatile, and does not restrict imagination. For example, the image of a huge puffing rain cloud to represent cloud storage could form part of an entertaining story and make a complex explanation far more interesting and memorable. The cloud could also form part of an infographic, with an affable animated character leading viewers through the topic. Likeable characters that employees can relate to will rouse positive emotions.

Other useful techniques for clarifying concepts are split screens and time lapses. Animations can be valuable for presenting dynamic content, including changes over time. You can also include some live-action footage within your video.

The manner and location in which your audience view your video may depend on its purpose. They could be shown first in an office environment without distractions to minimise cognitive load and improve employees’ ability to process the video’s content; then they might be placed on a video-sharing site like Vimeo to be shared in social media or distributed via email. If employees have access to the video on their computers and mobile phones, they can watch it again and again and increase their level of understanding if needed.

Indeed, there are many more ways you can make use of this innovative tool. Just assess your objectives, explore animation’s potential, and use your imagination so that your video is informative as well as memorable. It's also important to support the concepts taught via your animated video with other educational methods such as detailed documents, presentations and other uses of multimedia. This will help you achieve great success.

Source: HealthManagement.org