E-Learning Heroes - Advice and ideas from the Articulate Community

Hello folks.

This is a my first project in Storyline and I was hoping for some constructive feedback and/or advice.  Please take a look at it and let me know what you feel works or doesn't work for you.  I have a thick skin, so please do not worry about hurting my feelings!  Its a project I am been working on for an audio club I belong to.  Thanks!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/78039977/KLH/story.html

in general, i liked the look & feel-- the retro approach works well for the subject matter

there's some housekeeping stuff-- resources is empty & you should title the last couple of slides

i'd look at the slides that have loads of in-your-face text-- maybe reduce size?

i'd stick to no more than 2 fonts-- more than that makes it look busy imho

looks like it will be a handy guide for stereo enthusiasts!

What works for me:

- Background is great!

- Colors work well.

- The headline font fits.

- Starting with a little storytelling

What doesn't work for me:

- Flying in of text and things.

- Maintext font, too playful and too big.

- No structure in the menu.

- Some slides continue automatically

Suggestions:

- Make a logical structure and give the different steps an number.

- Write numerals as numbers not as words. it makes it quicker to read.

-Maybe you could make an extra slide after the story:  What to do now? This way the reader can decide what he wants to do according to the condition of his speakers. This will make it also less linear.

Nice first project to work on.

- 

I like the overall look & feel too, but agree with Bud's font assessment.

One problem, your interactions for "Removing the Drivers" and "Reassembly" appear to be on a timer. If you wait a few seconds, they auto-advance and if you go back, they are locked. The user is then unable to select any of the tabs they may have missed.

I would remove the auto-advance so they can move at their own pace.

Lastly, not sure if it's my system, internet speed, or something in the course, but clicking on any page directly in the navigation menu results in a several second delay before anything appears to happen. It might run fine locally or on a dedicated host, but just something to check.

Thank you all for the excellent observations and advice!  I will be implementing changes soon and will repost after I have done so.  I really appreciate this!

I notice this sometimes happens when using Dropbox.

I have revised this project with the help from the input posted above.  I think it looks and flows much better.  Here it is.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/78039977/KLH/story.html

I like it, the retro feel is great and there are some really nice feature, the pseudo lightbox is good.

There are navigation problems, the tabbed interaction gets me lost as i press the next button, I think you need more contrast on the close button so it is more obvious.

Nice idea overall, good for your portfolio

Hi Wilson,

Just wanted to check in with you to see how this project was shaping up.

Couple things I'd add to the great feedback others have provided:

Storyline menu

Visually group your steps into categories using Storyline's menu options. This would help learners know where they are in the 3-step process.

Background

I like the background graphic and wouldn't change it. The rounded overlay graphic you added helps increase the contrast between the text and background, but it doesn't work as well as it could.

Reduce the corner radius and go with something more subtle. Increase the contrast by using a more opaque fill.

Type

The Stencil font is pretty good. I like that one. But the Poor Richard font is perhaps a bit "too retro" for this project. 

Here's an update using Google font Fredoka for the heading and Arial for the body.

And finally, here's what those elements might look like on the slide:

The other thing I'd add is to go back and look at the image styling and formatting applied. There were several different styles applied to images (border, drop shadow, plain).

I would add a worksheet that outlines the steps at a high level (accesible from the resources tab).  Once they are actually working with speakers their hands would be all grungy, and they would likely need to reference something.  With a worksheet they could, without multiple clicks, glance at what they need to be doing.

Great suggestion, Heidi!

There are a few grammatical issues that you might want an editor to look at (e.g. "You hook them up to your system, gave them a listen..." should be either "You hooked them up to your system, gave them a listen..." or "You hook them up to your system, give them a listen...").

I really like the overall look and functionality! The photos are very helpful!

Finally got back to updating this project.  Made the changes suggested (except for the worksheet) and I'm really liking how it is looking now.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/78039977/KLH/story.html

Hi, Wilson!  I think it's great how far your project has come!

I noticed something in navigation you might consider.  Sometimes you rely on the Next button to navigate, and sometimes the Next button does not take you where you need to go.  For example, I need to click Next to progress through the first few slides.  But then when I get to the 3 Steps slide, if I click Next, it actually skips over that whole section.  I suggest having Next take me through the content as if I had clicked 1, 2, and 3 on the slide.

The same thing happens in other areas where you have me click on the slide (like on Removing the Drivers and on Reassembly).  If I click Next on those slides, I miss out on the important content.

Finally, at the end of each of the three steps, it always takes me back to the menu slide.  How was I meant to get to Clean Up the Cabinets and Grill Cloths?  I just realized if I click Next from the menu slide, that's where it takes me.  I'd suggest making the Next button on the Reassembly slide take me on to Removing the Drivers because there's no reason to go back to the menu after step 3.

One last thing, if you're not going to provide added links and documents in the Resources section up at the top, you can remove that link -- click the Player button on the Home tab, and uncheck Resources.

Hope these suggestions help!

Maybe I didn't explain it well.  I didn't have any delays and I only clicked once.  When I'm on the 3 Easy Steps slide and click the Next button (instead of clicking a step on the slide), it goes to the end of the course on the "Clean up the Cabinets" slide.  I'm suggesting it should take me to the first slide of step 1.  If that's not what happens for you, that's really strange... because I don't see anything indicating a delay or a glitch.

Anyway, hope it works well for you.

Since it's your first project, I'll make one more suggestions related to testing your course.  I always click through all my courses from beginning to end using the Next button.  Many people viewing your course will do that, and you want to make sure they don't have a disruptive experience.  If you do that, you may understand my comments a little better.