SL3 - Roadmap or Release Dates?

Feb 15, 2016

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has any visibility into the Storyline roadmap? 

It's been a while since the last major update, so am hoping there will be an update sometime soon.

Some companies provide a high-level insight into a products release schedule, give or take six months, though couldn't find anything for SL.

I'm guessing Articulate don't provide this information, though I thought I'd ask the question anyway - just in case I'd missed the memo.

Thanks,

 

Simon

55 Replies
Simon Seagrave

Wow, that is an interesting read.  A complete re-write explains the long wait between major revisions.

Good from the perspective of Mac users, with it being web only.

I hope they build, and don't lose any of the current functionality found in SL2.

I'll keep my ear to the ground, and hopefully it'll see the light of day sometime soon.

Maik van Rossum

Thanks for pointing out the white paper to us, it gives a sneak peak into your company's strategy and what to expect.

I hope Storyline 3 won't be an entirly web-based development tool, as in 'no offline authoring capabilities'. But, more of a browser-based application that would also run as an 'offline web-app on multiple platforms'. It would also bridge the gap for Mac users, dropping the need to run Storyline on Windows inside a virtual machine. I guess we'll have to wait and see... ;)

Furthermore, the white paper focusses mainly on 'responsive layout' in slide-based e-learning versus web design. I agree on the part that a slide's content could lose meaning when it's layout changes completely, or parts of it are hidden on smaller screen sizes automatically. Isn't that exactly the reason why 'responsive layout' requires some extra effort from the author in the development process? To re-layout learning content at different break-points / for different screen sizes?

In my opinion the other part of 'responsive layout' in slide-based e-learning, would still be the 'web design' part... this is where your newly developed 'web based player' comes in. This part has nothing to do with the slide's content, but mainly with the user interface for navigating between slides (page turning), accessing the menu of the course or module, starting or stopping video, controlling audio, using touch-friendly elements, displaying them correctly on different devices and browsers, and so on.

A modern development framework, or dedicated wrapper like your web player, would overcome the development challenges for this part of delivering e-learning content to different devices. Is there already a release date scheduled? Or is it already out there...?

Best regards,

Maik van Rossum

https://twitter.com/maikr

 

Syed Mukarram

Hello, 

I have been an avid Storyline 2 developer. I simply love the ease and simplicity built into this tool. Over the past few years, I have looked around and tried other authoring tools like Captivate, Lectora and even some web base responsive authoring tools. 

Quite recently, a few weeks back, due to my employer's recommendation and pressure on supporting mobile devices, I started reviewing Adobe Captivate 9 which has the responsive design tools built in. At first, it was quite intriguing. Watching the videos made me believe that this is the way to go. 

After signing up for a 30 day free trial, and few hours of tutorial videos, it just didn't seem right. I am also a Javascript enthusiast and a front-end developer, and I am an expert web designer for responsive layouts, but trying to implement the same concept for slide based eLearning was just not natural. 

It doubled the work on each slide. It was confusing and not easy at all. I simply cant agree enough with Arlyn Asch article attached here.

I am so glad I came across this. It has strengthened my relationship with Articulate and Storyline and I just can't wait to see the mobile player in action.

Kudos Articulate Team and All the best in your efforts! We are going to wait patiently and keep loving Storyline as we always do.

Ron San

i agree too.

After having built a 8hr course as per client needs in Storyline, i find myself drifting away from it.

Storyline is still a good product.
However, I now realize how painful it is to create a highly engaging, interactive and personalized course. It just takes a lot more time than it should. The main culprit is the way triggers have been architected. Because each trigger only does one action, we have to define a million of them. There is hardly any functionality to efficiently manage/navigate through triggers, e.g. cant search in triggers, cant group them in collapsible categories, cant turn them on/off. This means if you have several dozen triggers on a slide (common on certain heavy slides because of all the interactivity and dynamism) you get lost in just navigating through them. Working with triggers is sluggish. There are also eccentricities like if you paste a new trigger it always goes at the bottom of the queue. It is painful to move them up - one at a time.

The course development environment is just too heavy to use for anyone who does not want to devote entire professional life working the tool. I would rather spend more time doing ID than fight with the software.

Developing a product in secrecy is so last decadish. In today's Agile world of time-bound (useful) releases, Articulate's approach is archaic. Not knowing when, if at all, release 3 will come out and which major areas of improvement to expect, prevents us to plan our efforts. This is no small thing. There is no guidance on which areas to expect improvement on in future.

And its not just lack of visibility. I am also disappointed by lack of innovation.

If you study the release notes, you realize that its been close to 18 months (maybe more) since any useful feature was added. All recent updates are only about bug fixes- the bugs that were not even supposed to be in the release considering it takes them ~4 years to do a major release.

Also, I don't sense any desire to help developers save time. There is a dire need to re-imagine Trigger architecture. We should also be allowed to import slides and maybe even triggers from ms excel templates- atleast shells. This is just an idea to make the point that out of the box thinking is required to reduce the amount of time it takes to make EFFECTIVE elearning courses.

Then there is the problem of persistent storage. We need to rely on unreliable hacks to store course data in real-time to a database in order to track in-flight actions, mine this data to fine-tune the ID, and report on it to our stakeholders.

Storyline is a good product, but i am afraid Articulate doesnt seem to be nimble and agile enough for the current pace of technological development, and change in customer preferences.

Hopefully this will change.

I hope the response to this post is not just another request to create more feature requests. While I see the value on hearing from the users, I hope there are people in the product team who have the vision and foresight to keep the product ahead by atleast a few steps of what we need.

Ron San

It's more of drifting away for now.

Having said that, I am optimistic about using Twine for my game based
learning needs. I have just started exploring it.

I believe it will require a web developer for the aesthetics and advanced
logic, but boy is it simple for (tondo ID and create learning content) me
to create functional prototypes, which I can then pass over to a developer.

Hope that helps.

What's your situation?

Content Developer

Don't be rude on Articulate guys :) The company is obvious no Adobe, and the development times are of course a little longer. I think that the company is pursuing a legitimate, even if a bit old-fashioned, strategy: they're trying to keep Storyline 2 sales up by not announcing the new product until it's ready. Who's going to buy Storyline 2 if they know that a new release is coming in a determined date?

I understand also that this can be a litte counter-productive for them: competition is moving fast, people of course want to stay with an interface and software logic that they know well, and want to know it there's going to be a third release or not. If this situation stretches too long, of course, they're going to explore new opportunities.

I think that a simple announce, like "Storyline 3 development is on the way" might make people stick with the company and put all the critics at sleep for a while.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Thanks Dario - if I could tell you what we were working on, I would, cause it's pretty exciting! But, I like my job a lot and want to keep it - so mum's the word. :)  

I hope you'll all be as excited about it as I am once we're able to share...and I promise you that once we get that green light, there won't be any hiding the awesomeness our team has cooked up. As far as not announcing things (like features included or bug base info), I know our Product team has discussed this process previously - so they're always looking at ways to make the experience easier and more in line with customer needs. Again, can't tell you what - but we're listening and reading forum discussions just like this one. 

George Carlisle

I hope also that it will not be an online only authoring tool, and is one of the reasons that I liked Storyline as so many other companies are going to online only tools.  I use a lot of online interfaces for applications, but online development tools are usally not as feature rich and much slower when it comes time to publish.  Has a study been done to see if the majority of people want a web based authoring tool, or is it just the thing to do because that is what most other companies are doing regarless of what customers want?  And to that question I do not know, I can only speak for myself.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi George and Joanna,

Thanks for sharing some of your thoughts here. We're working on a lot of exciting things right now, and I think it's been a focus of our team to ensure that we're reaching the majority of customers and fitting the needs of many. I hope you'll be as excited as we are when we're able to share! 

Content Developer

Also for me, the release of Storyline 3 as an online tool would be a major problem, too many limitations, issues related to bad connectivity / wi-fi, or developers working with limitations on download/upload volume. What about us developers working freelance from the countryside, where connectivity goes on and off along the moon cycles? :)
I think that a solution like that is just not suited for a professional development tool. Well, I guess that we'll know soon :)

mike mcdonald

I'm with Dario on that one. For some intensive projects I disappear off to a remote location for focus and no interruptions.

Some web-based apps. just suck in that regard.

So if the near-future means SL3 is a web-based authoring tool (and moves us away from the archaic 'slide'-centric concept),  that'll be awesome....but if it requires a good wi-fi continuous connection during all points of development...oh-oh!

Having said that, I'm really impressed with how my Microsoft Office 365 OneDrive now works in terms of syncing and backup, and it has changed the way I work (for the better).   

So I have fingers crossed! And am sticking with Articulate....  :-)

 

Content Developer

Exactly Mike, whats' the point of being a freelancer if you cannot disappear for a while, sharing your time between your PC and hiking sessions? Ok, I'm getting a bit too romantic here :) But you get the idea: here in Italy lot of the heavy-lifting of the e-learning scene is performed by a network of freelancers that do not always have access to 24/7 internet access.

I think that, on the whole, web-based apps add another variable to the development equation that I tend not to trust too much: what if my ISP is down, what if wi-fi is sluggish, and if my dog accidentally unplugs the modem before I was able to save, and what about compatibility with browser updates, PHP version, etc? I like to have my development under the type of (reasonable) control that comes only with a copy of the software on a local drive, and I think that lots of e-learning developers can agree on this one.

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