In today’s world, there are so many new job titles popping up that it’s hard to know what they all mean. And it’s even harder to really understand on a deeper level what anyone’s day-to-d...
Published 7 years ago
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I have often wondered how weird my situation is working in government. Lately I am one of those IDs you mentioned who does the design, development, and graphic design all-in-one due to our limited resources. If a project requires SMEs, I coordinate with them directly. It can be overwhelming so I usually focus on one major project at a time, two at most, with maybe a couple smaller things on the side.
My day looks very different because I don't have set "stages" to my projects. Once I have a very general sense of the goals/content sequence/key takeaways that's been approved by my manager, I bounce between design and development as ideas come to me, often developing sections out of sequence. Sometimes I just start developing something and design ideas emerge. It's very free-flowing and flexible.
I have weekly meetings to discuss new ideas with my boss and get feedback, sometimes with a storyboard if the development involved will be significant, but often not as I'm given a lot of independence. My boss also tries to be available for spontaneous meetings if I get an idea but want to ensure he is on board before I put much time into development.
We serve state employees rather than a client, so our feedback process consists mainly of internal comments from my boss throughout the project and from coworkers who comment on the final product. My coworkers mainly work as face-to-face trainers and I am the only dedicated online designer/developer in my division. From my interactions with my counterparts in other government agencies I get the sense that other government IDs have similar situations where they must wear many hats. I'm curious if anyone else, private or public, can relate?
My day looks very different because I don't have set "stages" to my projects. Once I have a very general sense of the goals/content sequence/key takeaways that's been approved by my manager, I bounce between design and development as ideas come to me, often developing sections out of sequence. Sometimes I just start developing something and design ideas emerge. It's very free-flowing and flexible.
I have weekly meetings to discuss new ideas with my boss and get feedback, sometimes with a storyboard if the development involved will be significant, but often not as I'm given a lot of independence. My boss also tries to be available for spontaneous meetings if I get an idea but want to ensure he is on board before I put much time into development.
We serve state employees rather than a client, so our feedback process consists mainly of internal comments from my boss throughout the project and from coworkers who comment on the final product. My coworkers mainly work as face-to-face trainers and I am the only dedicated online designer/developer in my division. From my interactions with my counterparts in other government agencies I get the sense that other government IDs have similar situations where they must wear many hats. I'm curious if anyone else, private or public, can relate?
Hi Breanne,
You're definitely not alone and the description of how your days/weeks flow is very similar to my own. I work for an ed tech company as the sole ID in my division. I support a team of trainers with materials for onsite customer training as well as develop our online courses. There are other ID divisions across our company, some with 10+ people on the team. Those teams have the work divvied up between curriculum writers, artists, multimedia dev, and the actual development of the course. Lucky :)
Typically the only feedback I get is from the training team and/or my boss. I have meetings with him every other week to discuss the status of current projects, and he's generally available for quick feedback in between. Overall I have a lot of freedom in this role and our meetings are primarily for me to let him know where my roadblocks are so he can help out where possible.
In terms of developing I've found that once I get my LOs and course outline together my design/dev process is fairly free flowing. I've tried to develop in a more linear fashion according to my outline, but have found that I'm more creative when letting it happen organically.
Over the years I've learned that there's no standard ID job description and that it looks different from one company to the next. Heck, in my own company it looks different depending on the division you work in! I love the work I do, but I must say I'm jealous of those working on teams. There are many times I'd love to bounce an idea off another ID who's working on my same project or something similar.
Lucky for us we have the Articulate community as our extended ID team :-)
You're definitely not alone and the description of how your days/weeks flow is very similar to my own. I work for an ed tech company as the sole ID in my division. I support a team of trainers with materials for onsite customer training as well as develop our online courses. There are other ID divisions across our company, some with 10+ people on the team. Those teams have the work divvied up between curriculum writers, artists, multimedia dev, and the actual development of the course. Lucky :)
Typically the only feedback I get is from the training team and/or my boss. I have meetings with him every other week to discuss the status of current projects, and he's generally available for quick feedback in between. Overall I have a lot of freedom in this role and our meetings are primarily for me to let him know where my roadblocks are so he can help out where possible.
In terms of developing I've found that once I get my LOs and course outline together my design/dev process is fairly free flowing. I've tried to develop in a more linear fashion according to my outline, but have found that I'm more creative when letting it happen organically.
Over the years I've learned that there's no standard ID job description and that it looks different from one company to the next. Heck, in my own company it looks different depending on the division you work in! I love the work I do, but I must say I'm jealous of those working on teams. There are many times I'd love to bounce an idea off another ID who's working on my same project or something similar.
Lucky for us we have the Articulate community as our extended ID team :-)
- Totally agree -- every ID position is a little different! Loving hearing about how you all work. :)