Are videos on the homepage of a commerce site a good idea instead of text?

Question

I have received a design to implement for a new homepage on an existing music entertainment site. I have wireframed the new design below (it's already been designed and UX has not happened, I am encouraging a more thorough approach before implementing the design)

I am uncomfortable with the expectation that users will play the video at all without an introduction or explanation of what the video will show, it is a video showing some of the acts for hire on the site in action and conveys the typical feel-good atmosphere of fulfilled bookings - it does not have a spoken narrative but the music/sound is important.

I don't want to be the spanner in the works as I am a developer and front end engineer not a UX expert but this just doesn't sit right with me as it is, any evidence based responses most welcome!

Answer 1

I've been working for years as web designer/developer in a communication company. From experience I can tell you that a well done smart video is better than anything to explain concepts in briefs and reaching the point.

For your doubt:

"I am uncomfortable with the expectation that users will play the video at all without an introduction or explanation of what the video will show"

What about creating an Intro animation that shows some frames of the video and finished with a nice play button? Lazy people won't play the video people who want to dive in will.

If the video duration is long having some previews can make the difference to persuade people to press play and get their attention.

Answer 2

I'm not a UX expert, but as web user, I would say yes and no.

It's a good, and a great idea to have a video explaining the site and stuff, but you need to have text also to cover the main points of the video.

If I'm in a hurry, I won't look at the video. If I don't know what's in the video and don't know the company and I just stumbled on their site, well most likely I won't watch the video. In these cases, I will want text. Text is easy to look at and when you are used to read, you can read really fast and get the mains points of a text by just eyeing quickly at it. If the text seems interesting then most likely I'll watch the video.

It might be a good idea to make it play automatically, but be careful. If I'm on my cellphone and get to the same page with the video auto-playing I will hate the company. I don't necessarily have much data, and don't want to use it playing videos I don't care about.