What Makes It Hard for Users to Follow Software Tutorial Videos?

Abstract

Software tutorial videos provide more detailed explanations than ordinary text-based tutorials as they contain much more visual information and can also express continuous information. However, despite the advantages of tutorial videos, people often aren’t able to correctly follow the task shown in tutorials. In this research, we perform studies using Photoshop tutorials to examine the factors that influence how well a viewer can follow the tutorial video. Our analysis shows that there are generally four possible sources that affect the understanding of the tutorial: the user, the software (Photoshop), the tutorial, and the interaction between the user and the tutorial.