Do you create your own graphics for your Storyline projects?

Hi,

In my experience the answer to your question depends upon the needs of your client / business.

Generally speaking I have been able to get most of the designs / images / buttons etc that I need from either Storyline iteself, MS Office or royalty free artwork online. This is because as manager of my projects I have the influence over the stakeholders decisions, especially over the age old question of content vs delivery method. Yes we all want our work to look good, but the important part to remember is that it is a learning method. People complete your eLearning because they need to learn something, not because your title slide looked funky.

For me the true skill of the Instructional Designer is in the methods used to deliver the message / learning in a way that is enjoyable for the user and promotes retention of information. How flashy your character / template / buttons are etc does not make the user remember/retain more information. Similarly though, very poor graphics / colours can detract from your message.

I always look at each element from 3 different viewpoints.

1. Subject matter expert: what should the end user take from this slide? What is the learning point?

2. End user: what do I see and do on the slide? does it make sense and does it add value to the message?

3. Designer: what is the content that needs to be in the slide and how can I convey that in an interresting and enjoyable way?

In terms of what people use, there was a "what's in your toolkit" thread that I found really useful as it had loads of resources and ideas from other ID's and Developers.

http://community.articulate.com/blogs/david/archive/2014/05/16/elearning-design-toolkit.aspx

Hope that this helps

CJ

yes you can

I am not an artist, so I have a wonderful illustrator that does my work for me when I need it.

You have to decide a business model that works on your strengths, but where you can still make money from your weaknesses, (i.e. I price her in as an additional cost to client and take margin).

Simpler stuff I do myself, stuff that is going to be very high profile or needs to match a certain branding (especially if it needs proprietary fonts), I turn over to the Pros from Dover.  

In the past I had *some* access to a graphic designer, but I did a lot myself. In my position now, I do all the design work myself or purchase stock images as needed.

While it's certainly not required to be an ID, graphic design skills make you much more marketable in the elearning fields especially. Just my 2 cents!

I am an artist so do create a lot of images myself, but there are times when my style is not appropriate or I don't have time to create the illustrations so sometimes I will resort to stock art sites like istock or shutterstock and sometimes I will commission a graphic artist.