the short version
most screens in underway now carry one quiet line: how this screen works. press it and a short video plays over the page, a minute and a half of the real app being clicked through while a presenter says what each part is for. nothing on the screen moves to make room for it. close it and you are exactly where you were. on the phone the same line opens the video in youtube.
where it is
on today it sits under the record button, under got a guest. before your first episode it says how underway works instead, and plays the lesson on finding your way round: signing in, the bar along the top, what lives where. after episode zero it plays the lesson on the today screen itself: the number, the record button, the streak in gold, and the cards underneath.
in the vault it sits under record an episode. on every episode page it sits under the numbers, above the tabs. on the episode zero page it sits under the line about what you are building. in account, under series, the card at the top says how these settings work while you are on name, rhythm or knowledge, and plays the lesson for that panel.
it is one line of small grey text, the size of the helper text around it. it is not a button, it has no box, and it is never gold, because gold in this app means now and a tutorial is not now. if you never press it, it costs you nothing.
what is in the videos
every video is a lesson from the underway manual, the course that explains every screen and button. each one opens with a presenter, an animated clay character, generated, who says what the lesson covers and makes the occasional dry joke. then the camera moves across the real app while his voice carries on. a cursor moves, clicks, and the page answers. tabs open. the vault filters. an episode opens from its tile. rings mark what he is talking about as he names it. he comes back to sign off and say which lesson is next.
the app in the videos is the founder's own account, the real series, filmed as it stands. episode 57, 32 days in a row, a real noticed card, the real vault. nothing on screen was mocked up for the video. the only clicks are the ones a viewer would make to look round: tabs, links, a tile. nothing was published, ticked, recorded or deleted to make them. the presenter is the one generated thing in them, and he is drawn as a character on purpose, so nobody takes him for a founder.
why put them in the app
the manual already lived in the underway community on whop, one written lesson per screen, and the lessons there now play these videos too. but a founder who is confused about a screen is looking at that screen, not at a course in another tab. the best moment to explain the vault is when someone is in the vault wondering what the round-ups are. so the explanation now sits where the question happens.
it is also quicker than reading. the written lessons are thorough on purpose, because they are the reference, and the today screen lesson is long. the video for it is under ninety seconds. watch that, and the written lesson is there for the detail.
the rest of the manual
seven lessons have videos so far: signing in and finding your way round, naming your series and choosing its voice and rhythm, episode zero, what it already knows, the today screen, the episode page, and the vault. the rest of the manual is being filmed lesson by lesson, and each screen gets its line when its lesson does. all of them are also on the underway youtube channel, in order, in a playlist called the underway manual. they are unlisted there, so they never sit between the episodes on the channel's videos tab.
the page that walks a new visitor through a first episode, screen by screen, has the same line under five of its steps, watch this step, so someone deciding whether to start can see the app working before they sign up.
faqs
do the videos play automatically?
no. nothing plays until you press how this screen works. the video loads from youtube's privacy-enhanced player only when you press it.
can i turn the line off?
there is no switch, because there is nothing to switch off: it is one line of small grey text that does nothing until pressed. it never pops up, never nags and never appears twice.
is the presenter ai?
yes. the presenter is a generated clay character with a generated voice, and he only ever says what the written lesson says. the app behind him is real and recorded live.
does it work on the phone?
yes. the same line is on today, the vault, the episode page, series settings and episode zero on the phone, and it opens the video in youtube.