When your designs call for callouts, speech bubbles, thought bubbles, etc. of often do you used custom "comic-style" objects as opposed to the default shapes in PPT or Storyline?
If you use custom comic-style, what are the disadvantages or things you don't like about them and what would want/need in your own library?
One issue I have run into when using a comic-style speech bubbles is the difficulty with showing a conversation. In comics you can greatly vary the size of a panel, which can adapt to the needs of the conversation, at least to a point. The medium of eLearning is somewhat restrictive in that way.
Having an adjustable tail is fantastic but I find the built in bubbles don't give much visual flexibility. The gold standard for speech shapes is way ComicLife works and looks when finished.
I think you could fake this a bit with a configurable multi-state shape / object in Storyline. I'd almost rather just have a folder full of objects that I can drag into the Story.
It really depends. For demos, internal projects, and anything that's not designed to showcase elearning projects I go with the built-in boxes. The work well for the most part. I'd still change their colors and formatting
But for any project that's custom or designed to showcase our products, I would create my own--each and every time. I have my "go to" custom captions that work in most cases, but I still find it necessary to create a couple new ones for each project.
Cary brings up a great point about panel size. Since our projects are usually constrained to the same size canvas, we don't have a lot of room to work with more than two or three layouts on one slide.
I don't do a lot with custom formats or styles. I think subtle transparent variations on black and white captions work in nearly all cases.
I think there's a trade off between searching a large repository of captions and simply creating a new one. Sometimes it makes more sense to create the one you need rather than searching for the right one.
It's the cart/horse debate and really situation dictates as all of you noted above. For various reasons, it depends on what 'works' using default callout shapes in PPT or Storyline. I agree that adjustable tail is the best feature, but restricted otherwise.
When I created the recent graphic novel style comic project, I *think* I created 337 custom speech bubbles. To Steve's point about just having a library to go to in a pinch, I don't know that I'll ever use all of them again.
Most or single bubbles but there's quite a few doubles and really odd shaped ones. I was thinking about organizing them and packaging them to share here. Just wanted to get a vibe on if transparent PNGs are useful, or if I packaged them as .EMF files which you can ungroup and customize them further.
I recently developed some custom bubbles for another rapid e-learning software that we use. Before I arrived my company used the basic captions that came with the software. I think 95% of the built in captions were horrendous. So I created my own for our team to use. I used different colors and icons to signify different events.
Since we do mostly software simulations, this made the best sense to me. I usually follow two simple rules when I create captions. They should be easily read and they need to be recognizable (that it's a caption/speech bubble). I try to avoid getting tooo fancy, but I skirt it every now and then.
If the avatar is speaking about a point and you have visuals (i.e. using dual coding), then speech bubbles are a distraction. The learner won't be able to process so many channels of information. If you need it for accessibility, give a download link to the transcript.
If the avatar is speaking about a point and you have visuals (i.e. using dual coding), then speech bubbles are a distraction. The learner won't be able to process so many channels of information. If you need it for accessibility, give a download link to the transcript.
Hi Many thanks for your kind stuff, Now could you please let me now what we should do if we face issue in downloading. Thanks
11 Replies
One issue I have run into when using a comic-style speech bubbles is the difficulty with showing a conversation. In comics you can greatly vary the size of a panel, which can adapt to the needs of the conversation, at least to a point. The medium of eLearning is somewhat restrictive in that way.
Having an adjustable tail is fantastic but I find the built in bubbles don't give much visual flexibility. The gold standard for speech shapes is way ComicLife works and looks when finished.
I think you could fake this a bit with a configurable multi-state shape / object in Storyline. I'd almost rather just have a folder full of objects that I can drag into the Story.
I use custom bubbles all the time, from eLearningArt.
Thanks Bryan!
Bruce
It really depends. For demos, internal projects, and anything that's not designed to showcase elearning projects I go with the built-in boxes. The work well for the most part. I'd still change their colors and formatting
But for any project that's custom or designed to showcase our products, I would create my own--each and every time. I have my "go to" custom captions that work in most cases, but I still find it necessary to create a couple new ones for each project.
Cary brings up a great point about panel size. Since our projects are usually constrained to the same size canvas, we don't have a lot of room to work with more than two or three layouts on one slide.
I don't do a lot with custom formats or styles. I think subtle transparent variations on black and white captions work in nearly all cases.
I think there's a trade off between searching a large repository of captions and simply creating a new one. Sometimes it makes more sense to create the one you need rather than searching for the right one.
It's the cart/horse debate and really situation dictates as all of you noted above. For various reasons, it depends on what 'works' using default callout shapes in PPT or Storyline. I agree that adjustable tail is the best feature, but restricted otherwise.
When I created the recent graphic novel style comic project, I *think* I created 337 custom speech bubbles. To Steve's point about just having a library to go to in a pinch, I don't know that I'll ever use all of them again.
Most or single bubbles but there's quite a few doubles and really odd shaped ones. I was thinking about organizing them and packaging them to share here. Just wanted to get a vibe on if transparent PNGs are useful, or if I packaged them as .EMF files which you can ungroup and customize them further.
Interest?
I recently developed some custom bubbles for another rapid e-learning software that we use. Before I arrived my company used the basic captions that came with the software. I think 95% of the built in captions were horrendous. So I created my own for our team to use. I used different colors and icons to signify different events.
Since we do mostly software simulations, this made the best sense to me. I usually follow two simple rules when I create captions. They should be easily read and they need to be recognizable (that it's a caption/speech bubble). I try to avoid getting tooo fancy, but I skirt it every now and then.
@Kevin.
Yes please - always useful
.pngs please.
Bruce
@Kevin. .emf would be great as well.
If the avatar is speaking about a point and you have visuals (i.e. using dual coding), then speech bubbles are a distraction. The learner won't be able to process so many channels of information. If you need it for accessibility, give a download link to the transcript.
Hi Many thanks for your kind stuff, Now could you please let me now what we should do if we face issue in downloading. Thanks