All video submissions are very critical to the CHI Conference. Effective videos can convey the core idea of your research strongly and attract a large audience, helping dissemination of your research. Please be sure to follow the guides on this page if you are making a video figure, a demonstration video, or a video presentation.

SIGCHI Guide for Videos

First, please familiarize yourself with the SIGCHI Guide for Videos before making videos. Note that this guide includes useful instructions about video accessibility, and authors should take them into account for their videos.

There are also several following tips that may be useful for background audio, screen recording, and other tips and tricks.

Preparation

Videos require a lot of planning and preparation. Before recording begins, prepare a storyboard with the key scenes to include in your video and a detailed script of the video, including a written version of any voiceover text at each scene.

A common and often effective strategy for videos that use voiceover is to record the entire narration at a comfortable pace, leaving gaps in the audio for important visual transitions, and fit the video accordingly. This is not how one would record a feature film, but it is an effective strategy for research videos that can simplify the process.

Note that having a written version of your voiceover for your video will also help when generating closed captions to ensure your video’s accessibility.

Exposition and Presentation

The expository style of your video presentation will greatly affect its impact. Use both video and audio. Always explain what is about to happen or what is most interesting: as the narrator, tell the viewer where to look and what to look for. Visual aids, such as callouts, annotations and captions, can help orient the viewer. Pay attention to the colors you use to ensure good contrast, avoid small text, and keep in mind that captions will overlay the bottom part of your video. The eye is drawn to the most brightly colored part of the scene; make sure the brightest point is the point of interest.

When appropriate, seek a variety of images: switch between face, screen, hands, and slides to keep the viewer’s interest. If interaction with the system involves specific actions with the physical world (e.g., a specific movement or social exchange), make sure to convey them and not focus only on their effect on the system.

Lighting makes a huge difference in perceived quality. For indoor recordings, pay attention to the light source that can cast shadows in the scene, and avoid light sources that are directly visible to the camera.

Avoid visual distractions, such as idly moving the mouse in a screen-captured video. Fades to black can be used as transitions between scenes, but they should not be overused. A full screen fade usually indicates a change in subject, time or place, and can be confusing when used elsewhere.

Pacing

Remember that your digital video will be accessed by an international audience, so speak clearly and slowly to successfully convey your message.

Camera Basics

Record in the highest possible quality and resolution, even though you will compress the final video. Maintain the quality of the original recording throughout the editing process; leave compression to the last step.

Keeping the camera stable and level is vital. If you use a portable camera, use a tripod or other physical surfaces that can help keep the camera stable.

Remember that the final picture will not be as clear as the picture in the monitor, so zoom in closer than might seem necessary, and make sure that no important elements are at the edge of the picture.

Audio Basics

Audio quality is as important as image quality to the overall impact of your video. Try to avoid recording the noise of computer fans and disks. Choose a quiet room to record any audio material. If it is important to hear key clicks or computer audio output (beeps), record these on an audio track separate from the voice-over. Some audio editing tools include filters to eliminate background noise.

If you are adding music to the video, place it on a separate track, so it will be easy to fade out music when the narration or the sound made by the system begins. It is very important that you have the rights to use this music, refer to the SIGCHI guidelines for more details about authors and their rights with the use of third-party material.

If you have an external microphone or even a good headset, you will capture better audio than with your computer’s microphone. Whatever you end up using, avoid touching or holding the microphone as this only creates more problems with the recording.

Recording Computer Screens

Because of incompatibilities of resolution, refresh rate, and interlacing, it can be difficult to get good shots of computer screens on video. Using a flat-panel LCD video monitor often leads to best results when filming a computer screen. Use a resolution that lets you capture text, lines, colors and animations accurately.

Other ways to capture a screen is using screen-capturing software. Loom is a good, cross-platform solution, which is free for academics. For Windows users, Camtasia or Camstudio are known to produce acceptable screen captures. For OSX, the Quicktime player already has a Screen Recording feature.

If you are using screen capture software, make sure that it is able to capture the screen at a satisfactory frame rate and does not affect the performance of your application. Most software can capture the whole screen or a specific area such as a window. Since performance is often affected by the size of the area being captured, you should try focusing the capture on the area of interest. This will also reduce the artifacts if you later compress and resize the image. Finally, remember that screen capture only captures the screen: you may want to add wider shots taken with a camcorder to show the user interacting with the system; you should also consider adding click sounds when the user clicks the mouse to make such interactions more explicit (some capture software can do that automatically).

Guide to an Accessible Video Submission

Any video content for CHI should be accessible.

CHI attendees represent a diverse group and there may be attendees who are blind or have other vision impairments (e.g., low vision and impaired color vision). Many are not native speakers of English. Some attendees may rely on lip reading, may have difficulty reading words on the slides, or may be sensitive to animations or flashing lights. Therefore, it is important that you carefully design all aspects of your video so that every CHI attendee is able to access the information you are sharing.

Closed-captioning is mandatory for all video content at CHI. We also strongly encourage CHI contributors to follow good practices detailed below to make your video accessible to all.

Closed-captioning

You must submit a closed-captioning file in .srt or .sbv format with your video. Allow time to prepare this, especially if using an AI-based service. If you use automatic speech recognition, or other AI-based captioning tools (e.g. otter.ai), it is essential to review your closed captions and correct any error.

Here are two examples of closed captioning done well: Example 1, Example 2.

YouTube provides free tools for generating closed captions, either starting from a transcript of the dialog (recommended), or using their automated speech recognition and correcting the result. YouTube will add the timings to sync it to the audio. Download the .sbv or .srt file and delete your video when you are finished.

Please follow SIGCHI instructions for closed-captioning. You can also find step-by-step instructions for generating a caption file with YouTube.

If you have a question related to creating a caption file, contact CHI 2025 Accessibility Chairs (accessibility@chi2025.acm.org).

Good Practices for Accessibility

In addition to providing closed captions, use the tips for creating an accessible presentation in this video. Remember that some people will not be able to see your visuals, so the presentation should be understandable from the script alone – if visuals are important you should verbally describe them.

Please avoid using effects in your video that could trigger an adverse reaction. For example, flashing lights can induce seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Avoid using animations (simple appear/disappear is ok), unsteady camera work, flashing strobe lights, loud sounds, or repetitive alarms. If you include components, such as police car lights and sirens, consider warning viewers at the start of the video or right before the content so they can look away or mute their computers. The Trace Center offers an analysis tool to help authors assess their video is safe for people with photosensitive epilepsy (https://trace.umd.edu/peat/).

Below are additional recommendations about the three components of video content: script, visuals and audio.

1. Script:
• Include all important information – don’t assume everyone can see the visuals
• Describe images and charts
• Avoid using slang and colloquialisms – use simple direct language
• Avoid pointing and saying “as you can see …” or “… here” without giving additional information verbally
• If your visuals need more description than can be included in the script, consider providing an audio described version of the video, or give a link to a written description
2. Visuals:
• Remember that viewers may have captions showing on the bottom part of the screen and avoid using that area for important information
• Use a color scheme with good contrast
• Avoid small text
• Use more than just color to communicate information
• Avoid animations and visual effects that could trigger an adverse reaction. For example, flashing lights can induce seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Avoid unsteady camera work and flashing strobe lights. If you include such components, warn viewers before this content so they can look away.
3. Audio:
• Provide a closed caption file (required) that captures the audio content of your presentation. Some CHI attendees are not native speakers of English, and some cannot hear the audio. See information above on how to do this.
• Avoid loud sounds, or repetitive alarms that could trigger an adverse reaction. If you include components such as police car sirens, warn viewers before this content so they can mute their computers.