Appropriate Use of Auto Play

With Auto Play turned on but all interaction allowed in toolbar

Above Samples are with these settings;

• Auto Play turned on
• Channels turned off
• Title turned off
• Play Button Overlay turned off
• Allow Rating turned off
• Allow Sharing turned off
• Toolbar turned on with nothing removed from it

Some companies spend considerably more resources before making interface change edits. The smart people who understand mass appeal and the cause and effect of even the smallest changes do not take these decisions lightly.

If you remove the entire toolbar, and all onscreen layers like SHARING, VOTING, etc. The video window becomes a seamless part of a web page with literally no control available by the user. They can’t adjust audio volume, affect play by clicking pause, nor scrub through the video using the scrub bar.

Understanding your user is extremely important. If  limited use of a video player to this degree is what you want your viewer to experience, then use it to its full potential. But, make sure that you are adding value to their understanding of your product, not irritating them to never come back. Their like or dislike of your changes can be discovered by you’re A/B testing and polling. Simply getting your visitor’s opinion as well as watching the numbers after each page interface change is huge leverage for your design department’s efforts to increase each page’s visitor count and time on page.

Make sure the video that is playing is short, the content is to-the-point, and an appropriate CtA (Call-to-Action) is attached at the end or pops up in a timely location during the video’s play.

You may wish to NOT remove the entire toolbar, but allow the Audio Volume Control and View Full Size button to remain. They show up as Roll-Overs.

With Auto Play turned on but toolbar only allowing Volume Control and View in Full Screen button

Above Samples are with these settings;

• Value of video screen Width is only 400
• Auto Play turned on
• Loop Video turned off
• Pause on Last Frame turned off
• Channels turned off
• Title turned off
• Play Button Overlay turned off
• Allow Rating turned off
• Allow Sharing turned off
• Toolbar turned off with only Volume and View in Full Screen turned on

Typically, a side bar forced advertisement can be configured in a smaller video player but allow for Full Size. Brevity is important here, especially if there are fewer or no interface controls.