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

Hey guys,

I'm creating a course at work around emergency response. My inspiration was Tom's recent demo about making an emergency kit. Very much in draft status, but this is the intro idea.

I had to upload the zip file because I don't really have a way to share a published link from my work computer. If anyone wants to publish and share for me, feel free.

Let me know what you think!

Rebekah

Hey Rebekah,

I like the overall concept. The sound effects and images are engaging (I assume you wont use blurred ones in the real course). And I like the way the sounds often start before the image.

I'm not sure what it is but there is something that doesn't work for me in the way the words appear. I think it might be because I could guess what was coming but it seemed slow to arrive. I would either make them appear faster or all together.

Anyway, that's just my thoughts.

Hope it helps,

Kat

Thanks for the feedback. I can't decide on the images. I obviously won't have watermarked images in the real course, but I intentionally blurred the images. For some reason the full color, full resolution images seemed too cheesy and not very impactful, especially the ones with people. Hmmmm, but maybe the blurriness is too distracting.

Thanks again!

Rebekah

Good job.  A few ideas.

• Set the template to start in the slide only mode.  That way the player starts in the right mode.
• I like the effects on the image.  It's just about finding the right level of detail.  ,
• The angles and blurred borders are nice because they give the sense of something being off.  I'd drop the oval images and use the same effect on all the images.  
• The heart beat works because it adds some drama.  But it doesn't work when it goes in and out.  You could try putting the heart beat as a playlist so it plays under all of the slides.  Lower the volume a bit on it and it's always there but not intrusive.
• The transitions seemed a little slow to me.
• The set up: I'd start with a line or something to give them a sense of what's happening...something like "everyday emergencies happen..."  or, start with the black screen and a siren, then transition into the image.  The siren is universal for something's wrong.
• The font's spacing is too distant, should bring them a bit closer.  Also that font seems too dramatic and discordant with the overall style.  In the earthquake demo, I used that broken font to go with the earthquake.  In your case, you have a lot of "emergency" situations.  A good place to look for font ideas is how they're used in emergency settings...signs, ambulances, police.  If you do go with a dramatic font, then find one that goes with the lines you have in the images.  They're straight, but tilted.  The font you currently have is splattered.

Great job.

Wow, thanks for the detailed feedback! That playlist feature was a new thing for me...learned something new, woot!

Hopefully V2 coming soon.

V2 complete, and attempting to show you via the player below. Let me know if it doesn't work, and I'll just upload the file. Thanks!

Play Course

Oh, and now I'm looking for guidance on how to transition to the course, which I had hoped would be more themed towards an emergency sign look and feel (bold letters, colors, simple). For example, we use red and yellow to denote our trained emergency response team, so I wanted to use those colors. Plus, I wanted to use Exit and arrow "signs" for some of the course nav.

That said, it's kind of a stark contrast between the black jaunty shapes from the intro, and then the way I had envisioned the course looking.

Any design ideas?

Those are great changes from the feedback! I have to admit I don't fully understand the last emergency. It is the ground opening up or something? Actually, by the time it gets to that one, my thoughts are...ok, I get it! I would probably drop that last one.

I'm not very strong with the visual stuff. I would try changing the white font in the beginning to the yellow-red colors and see what that looks like. Is it bad that there is such a sharp contrast? Emergencies are all about the unexpected; they are a sharp contrast from your regular life. I don't feel like it is an issue. (But I'm sure someone else will think of a brilliant design that I will totally agree with).

Rebekah,

This is very impactful!

I have three comments:

1. I would switch the wording "emergencies happen" and "would you know what to do?"  If you start it with "would you know what to do" then it's more impactful when you consider that your learner would then be looking at each image with that question in mind.  Having "emergencies happen" at the end would then be a powerful statement suggesting "this could happen to you, you better learn what to do, now here we go..."  From what you've shown us I'm assuming that this course is around the FEMA initative about the fact that the first responder in an emergency is YOU?

2.  I think that the color scheme for the course itself is too "happy."  The brightness just seems so "up beat" after what we just saw.

3. Was the last image supposed to be an earth quake?  To Kristen's point, maybe it would be better to show an image like people in a room with items falling off shelves around them?  You already have the image of the tornado that's more abstract.

Hope this helps,

Heidi

I think the red is too bright also.  I think from a design perspective, I would transition from the black to the bolder colors by using animations (See Attached).  Also, if your inspiration is the emergency sign, run with it.  I would make the white background an actual sign with nails to make it look more like a sign, and the navigation can be smaller signs.  If the background is too bold, but you still want the sign, you could also use a brick wall background.  So it looks like the sign is hanging on the wall.  If you wanted the sign to look more realistic, try using very pale shades of gray and white as a linear gradient at an angle.  Good luck!

@Heidi- 1) I like this idea-thanks! Actually, no, this isn't related to the FEMA initiative, but perhaps I should look that up for content information! 2) I agree on the colors thing...I like Blake's suggestions. 3) Yes, the last image was in reference to an earthquake, but I think what I'm going to do instead is look for a short video to include, if I can find one. If I can't find something better than the cracked rock, I'll have to re-think things. Being in California though, it's probably not the disaster I should choose to leave out. :-/

@Blake- Thanks a bunch for the mock-up! I like the brick idea, maybe I'll go with that, but I also like the muted colors you came up with.

I have lots to work with, thanks for helping me get past my "designer's block"!

Rebekah