Creating A Design Guide
Aug 12, 2013
By
Dan S
Hi All,
I am a graphic designer working for an elearning company. I am fairly new to designing for storyline and would like to create and implement a design/style guide for our media developers etc. I was wondering if there are any designers out there who have done something similar and if there are any standards such as those present in web and print design that I might be able to use?
Thanks in advance,
Dan
7 Replies
Hi Dan and welcome to Heroes!
One fairly reliable way to get the design for your course right is to work with a (temporary) slide master layout.
Create a layout and place any elements there (this will help with auto-positioning of regular slide elements).
Once you are happy with design/style/positioning you can switch the master slide layout to the one you intend to use in your course.
Hope this helps,
Alex
Hi Dan! I wanted to welcome you to E-Learning Heroes as well. Just let us know if you need anything further.
Hi Again,
Thanks for the reply Leslie and Alex. I am familiar with the masterslide system, I suppose what I am trying to do is develop a system of style, animation, spacing and alignment etc. for projects where we are working with repeat clients i.e. Dell. We have repeat business with them and I was hoping I might be able to get a design guide together so that everyone working on the projects knows what's explicitly correct and incorrect. Are there any standards or rules of thumb for designing in articulate or has anyone developed such a guide before. Again, thank you for your help,
Dan
It really boils down to the platform you want to "encapsulate" Storyline into. A company like Dell (or any of that magnitude) will usually provide you with design specs prior to the commencement of a project. All you have to do is make sure your team abides by them (hence my recommendation for a temporary master slide design which will aid you and your co-workers regarding the initial spacing and alignment).
As for style and animation, it usually works better if you provide your collaborators with specific written step-by-step instructions (especially on reusable elements).
Alex
Thanks Alex,
Really appreciate your input. I have taken your advice and written up a guideline for the media developers to follow, whilst also creating a template following the Dell guidelines.
Cheers,
Dan
Thanks for the update Dan!
As a rule of thumb, whenever there's a larger than usual development team involved in a project I usually go by this rule : Treat your learners like adults and your developers like 12-year olds. Works every time, as long as you have a clear picture of which direction you want to go beforehand.
Best of luck with your project and keep us up to date!
Alex
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