Firefox Screencasts Contest - Judging Criteria

Judging the submissions for the top 100 articles...

The Mozilla judges will use the following three criteria to evaluate all of the entries for the top 100 support articles.
(i) Correctness / appropriateness of content (34%): What good is a screencast if it's not filled with correct or appropriate information, right?; When evaluating each screencast, judges will look for these characteristics in each screencast and compare it to the SUMO article it is trying to illustrate. Screencasts should not display unnecessary steps or any content that is not specifically Firefox related.; Finally, Mozilla is looking for support articles for Firefox 3. If you are not running the release candidate version of Firefox 3, please download it!
(ii) Quality of video production (33%): As always, Mozilla is looking for the best in class for this contest. We'll be asking things like how well was the screen cast created? Is the image quality good? Is the video production of the high quality? Is the lead time and end time enough for users to learn from the video and solve the problem?; Basically, it's time for you to bring out your best video-making skills! We will use the videos with the highest quality for its support site.
(iii) Completeness (33%): And, please only submit a complete screencast. That'll be a major factor in your chance at winning. We'll be asking questions like: Did the video sufficiently document how to solve the issue that is mentioned in SUMO article? Does it leave out any steps? All articles have been carefully written and edited to make sure they provide every possible step a user can take to solve a support issue. How well does the screencast illustrate these steps?
How do you win??: If our Mozilla judges give you the highest score for your screencast that illustrates one of the support articles, then you will win a unique, special-run t-shirt! As many as 100 people could win, but we'll only be giving out prizes to those screencasts that are the best for their article and meet all of the above criteria. Happy screencasting!!

Determining the Grand Prize Winner

If you submitted a screencast and were selected as one of the top entries for a support article, you'll be entered into competition for the grand prize. You won't have to do anything else. The judges will look at all the winning screencasts and select what they think is the best!
(i) Concept/Difficulty of article (25%): Judges will look for overall concept of the video.; Did the entrant create the best possible way to solve the issue? Was the pace too slow or too fast? Did the video seem to relay the easiest and most logical way for a user to solve the issue in the article? Was the support article more difficult to make into a video than other articles?; Judges will ask questions like this to evaluate concept and originality.
(ii) Production (Aesthetic) quality (25%): Are you an expert cinematographer or not?! :) It's time to show us your skill....; How well was the screen cast created? Is the image quality good? Are the movements and instructional steps crisp and to-the-point? Is the video production of the high quality? Is the lead time and end time enough for users to learn from the video and solve the problem?; Mozilla is looking to use the videos with the highest quality for its support site and we want you to get in that director's chair and screencast to perfection!
(iii) Completeness (25%): We'll say it again...please only submit a complete screencast! That'll be a major factor in your chance at winning. Make sure to sufficiently document how to solve the issue that is mentioned in SUMO article. And, don't leave out any steps, OK?; All articles have been carefully written and edited to ensure they provide every possible step a user can take to solve a support issue. It's your challenge to show how well your screencast illustrates these steps.
(iv) How well the submission compliments the existing SUMO article (25%): So, let's say you nail every step of an article and submit something that you believe is truly complete. That's great!; But, we can go a bit further and ask how well does that screencast compliment the SUMO article? We are releasing Firefox 3, so all screencasts should be done using the latest version of our browser. Also, does the screencast seem to provide good time sequencing for each step? Or, do could you add anything else to help illustrate other things that people should know about when completing the next "how-to" step? Perhaps you could insert other elements to highlight where users will click and then give them time to digest that information. Just because a screencast follows each step in a support article, it does not necessarily mean that it is a perfect compliment. Please do your best to assist an end user with the most complex parts by creating a screencast that leaves no room for confusion!

Any questions? Please send them to screencast_questions@support.mozilla.com.

Back to the main contest page.