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How to Boost User Experience with Voiceovers, Subtitles, and DAPs

Henriettie Handerson

Henriettie Handerson

5 June 2024

How to Boost User Experience with Voiceovers, Subtitles, and DAPs - Voquent

Today’s always-connected landscape and short attention spans have helped pave the way for the success of video content.

The sheer availability of digital video content has made it one of the most consumed types of content online, accounting for over 60% of all internet traffic. Everyone with a mobile device and an internet connection can access tons of video content online. If your business isn’t creating promotional video content for your own site or external platforms, you’re missing out on an excellent way to engage with global audiences.

Adopting voiceovers, subtitles, and DAPs on your website and its content will improve the user experience and understanding, but how exactly can your site benefit?

 

Voice actor recording audio to benefit the user experience of video content

The Benefits of Voiceover, Subtitles and DAPs

Enhancing Accessibility

As anyone from across the globe can access your video content, it’s crucial to focus on how this content can be accessible by people who speak different languages or have specific needs. Breaking the language barrier should be a primary objective for video content if it is to be consumed by anyone. Using software to add subtitles for different languages and hearing impairments is a great way to do this. Similarly, you can add audio description voiceovers that narrate what’s on screen, like text and other visual elements, to assist those with visual impairments. Incorporating subtitles, voiceovers, and other accessibility features ensures that your video content is accessible to a broad audience.

Boosting Engagement and Retention

Creating engaging content is an excellent way to promote brand recall because you are more likely to be remembered and, more importantly, shared. Investing in voiceovers and subtitles provides your audience with a multi-sensory experience that enhances the overall effect of content and your brand’s message. Reinforcing spoken words with subtitles aids in retention and comprehension, making it particularly beneficial in a learning environment. Integrating voiceovers or subtitles into your videos also helps enhance their search engine optimisation (SEO), allowing your site and content to be more easily discoverable online and helping reach your target audience.

Improving Brand Image

Including voiceovers or subtitles in your video content shows your customers that you’ve put as much effort in for them as possible to provide an overall pleasant user experience. Subtitles and voiceovers can be used to provide translations that allow customers to choose their preferred language. Watching videos in their native language helps your audience relate to your brand, boosting your brand image in the process. Providing support for multiple languages through subtitles or voiceovers builds trust and fosters a connection between you and your customers from all over the world.

Enhancing Cultural Sensitivity

It can be challenging to navigate through the nuances of cultural adaptation, but it’s key to creating successful strategies for localisation. Audiovisual translation is a powerful tool that cuts both ways; on the one hand, it can build rapport with customers, but making cultural errors, on the other hand, presents the risk of videos offending customers. Professional translators will help avoid this by ensuring that subtitles and voiceovers are culturally appropriate and flagging any content that’s culturally insensitive. The localisation of content isn’t simply translating it into different languages; it also requires understanding cultural preferences and adjusting accordingly.

Increasing Understanding

This is where digital adoption platforms (DAPs) come in. A DAP is a software solution that helps users adopt digital tools by accelerating their proficiency. It aims to simplify both the employee and end-user experience by acting as a bridge that guides both in the efficient use of digital platforms. DAPs can additionally be modified and customised to address an organisation’s unique use case.

This will make each instruction you give the user extra clear in a pop-up window, which is valuable to the user’s experience, time, and understanding.

In industries with high turnover, tools like a DAP can streamline onboarding, reduce training time, and improve employee satisfaction, which can be measured using an employee turnover calculator.

 

Man enjoying the user experience of digital content with voiceover.

Improving User Experience in Various Contexts

Educational Content

Clarity and comprehension are paramount when creating video content for educational purposes. eLearning courses have been increasing in popularity because they present the opportunity to learn from anywhere and at any time. Localising these courses requires assessability whether or not they need voiceovers, subtitles, or both. Subtitles can help when discussing complex terminology that isn’t common parlance or introducing novel concepts and ideas. Voiceovers can supplement this by providing a human touch, making courses easy to follow and more engaging.

Entertainment and Media

For entertainment content, the goal is to captivate the audience. Subtitles enable viewers to follow along in noisy environments or when the volume is low. They also help in understanding dialogue in different accents, languages or dialects. They also act as narrators of what’s happening onscreen, like having your very own storyteller.

Dubbing services can take this a step further, offering high-quality audiovisual content to any region you wish to target. This is a great way to grow your global audience, get more views, and earn more profits.

 

Voice actor recording voiceover.

Best Practices for Improving User Experience

High-quality Voiceovers

  1. Hire professional voice talent. Voiceovers shouldn’t be made on the fly by whoever’s available to create them. Professional voice talents understand the nuances of different mediums and messages and apply them to their narration.
  2. Prepare a detailed script. Preparing a script is vital if a voice talent is to narrate content effectively. A script should include notes and tonal guidance on how to deliver certain parts of narration if you are not live-directing the talent. Be as concise as possible while keeping cultural considerations in mind. If you’re having difficulties, you can take inspiration from free voiceover scripts to get started.
  3. Invest in high-quality audio equipment. If you want to produce world-class audio for your voiceovers yourself, you shouldn’t skimp on audio equipment. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should splurge on the latest and greatest. Take a look at what’s currently available and invest accordingly, depending on your current requirements. Alternatively, book a professional with a home studio.

Effective Subtitles

  1. Ensure accuracy. This doesn’t only mean that the text should match the spoken words; it also means that your subtitles should follow correct grammar and spelling. In some cases, this might also mean slightly rephrasing statements to aid comprehension.
  2. Synchronise text with spoken words. Subtitles that aren’t synchronised with the audio can have the opposite effect; instead of making the video easily understandable, it can add confusion and take away from the user experience.
  3. Ensure readability. Subtitle font sizes and styles vary with every video or provider, and this isn’t just about aesthetics. Subtitles should be readable even if overlayed on the video content. Use legible fonts and place subtitles in a consistent location. Professional subtitle services will follow these best practices to ensure a positive user experience on your behalf.

 

The Future of Voiceovers, Subtitles, and User Experience

With the surge in digital content, accessibility and localisation services have become more important than ever. In the future, we will see them as a standard. Accessibility is even becoming mandatory in Europe!

Voiceovers and subtitles’ value in both learning and entertainment content makes them vital tools in the future for both understanding and global reach. As users consume more video content, these services will remain indispensable in providing audiences with increased comprehension and engagement towards digital content.

 

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Henriettie Handerson

By Henriettie Handerson

Henriettie is a digital marketer with more than 10 years of experience, a contributor to Content Marketing Institute, and is regularly quoted as an expert in large media outlets. Her job is to make your business known all over the Internet.

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