This is an explainer video that I made in PWR 91NSC: Introduction to Science Communication. The class challenged us to choose a topic in our respective fields, and write two pieces about it: a literature review for an expert audience, and a public-facing text for a lay audience.

My goal for this assignment was to explain the transformer, a new AI model, to a lay audience. Rather than just talking about the math like I did in one of my other artifacts, I wanted my viewers to understand the bigger picture: what the advantages of the transformer are and what type of problems it can solve. I intended for this video to be an overview rather than a deep dive, and I think I was successful in achieving that goal.

Putting the material on the page was easy, but finding good analogies and tying them together effectively is something I spent a lot of time on during my revision process. Because my video has a layered structure, it was very important for me that the main message is clear and the audience does not get lost during my explanation. I spent extra time making sure the video was signposted appropriately, and asked for a lot of feedback on the connectedness of the different sections.

Something I worked a lot on during revision was pace. At first, I was talking without breaks all throughout, but I realized that making paused can help the viewer think about the information a little more. I tried to sprinkle these breaks in between main sections so that the video felt more slow paced, and less in a hurry.

Overall, this was a challenging assignment, mostly because of software troubles. I think I should have spent more time investigating the different tools I could have used in order to make a better choice. However, I’m still very happy about the final product. I am very proud of the way the final video is framing, and how the pieces fit together.