design news

Rouxbe: How-to Web Video At Its Best

March 5th, 2011 by concetta Bookmark and Share


Web video runs the gamut from entertainment and news to brand and product promotion. More and more, smart brands are increasing the stickiness of their sites and inspiring brand loyalty by offering how-to videos that teach consumers about new products or offer new ways to enjoy older products. It’s the brand equivalent of lending a helping hand.

Given this fact, if you haven’t already, now seems like a good time to start thinking about how to approach the use of video for your site.

The good news is, producing online videos for your site need not be intimidating (see LC post 1/12/2011). The key to success is to be engaging, informative and brief.

At Rouxbe (pronounced roo-bee), the web’s first-ever online cooking school, they are masters of the engaging, informative and brief.

Rouxbe features iPad friendly video tutorials that cover all aspects of cooking from proper knife skills to challenging and delicious recipes. The majority of their video content is available to paid subscribers only, but they do offer access to select tutorials as an introduction to their brand. Take a moment, if you haven’t already, to watch the above video from Rouxbe before we dissect it. The clip is a recipe overview. Lamb shoulder is on the menu!

Upon viewing this video, a few things should stand out. First, the image quality is top notch from the lighting and focus to the framing of shots and the styling of the food. The sound is clean. It exudes professionalism and that builds confidence in their product. The script is tight and to the point. The voice over is warm, assured and easy to understand. Music is added to set the tone. The editing, too, is tight, with every shot giving new and useful information. Finally, it is short.

Watch it again and think about how much information is being conveyed in twenty-five seconds. Now, were you to access the full video recipe, the tutorial would be longer and more involved. To get around the problem of length, Rouxbe wisely divides their tutorials into short chapters, generally no longer than a minute and a half. These chapters walk you through the dish from prep to plating.

Understand that Rouxbe represents the pinnacle of how-to web video and that video of this quality requires a great deal of thought and skill to produce. We can do it for you at Lord Creative, but, if you want to attempt it on your own, this site offers an excellent reference to aspire to.

Two suggestions. Make sure that you use a video camera with a high resolution (1080p preferably, 720p minimum) and experiment with lighting and framing to get the best results. When recording voices place the microphone as close to the subject as possible and let the level ride as close to the red as possible without going into the red. Bad sound is your worst enemy.

As a final thought, notice how the “look” of the videos on this site relate to the “look” of the Rouxbe site itself. The design is uncluttered, tasteful and clean. That fits nicely with the subject of cooking and provides added cohesion to the overall experience of this site. Extending this approach, all the videos featured on Rouxbe adhere to this aesthetic regardless of the topic they are covering.

Do you see why we love them? In fact, we are such huge fans we even enrolled in their cooking school. Yum!

2 Responses to “Rouxbe: How-to Web Video At Its Best”

  1. Bunny Says:

    Okay I’m convinced. Let’s put it to actoin.

  2. clif Says:

    Let’s do it!

Leave a Reply