I was just wondering if anyone had any tips in dealing with constant UI changes?
Our eLearnings are quite screenshot heavy because our training material is mostly focused on how to use our product. So far, so good! But the UI changes incredibly regularly - from button colours to element positioning, which means all our screenshots, steps and simulations end up out of date within weeks of making them.
Does anyone else here have experience with this? And if so (or even if not, and you just have an idea!) how do you streamline the process so you're not chopping and changing so often?
I've dealt with having to update screenshots and the like a few times and it can be really time consuming! A couple of things that have helped me would be:
1. Before you start swapping all the screenshots and such out, ask the people making these changes if there are any coming releases that will affect how your material will look. If they have more changes coming up soon, maybe hold off until they have released them.
2. In line with the above - before swapping everything out, see if the new change really necessitates updating the content. i.e. if a button changed color but it is in the same spot and has the same text on it, is it necessary to change all the screenshots containing that button (or rather, will the learner still fully understand everything even if you don't update that screenshot right now)?
If you can do important updates on the fly but leave small stuff for a monthly/quarterly update release, it might be time saving.
Haha why thank you! I feel it accurately represents me!
That's a really great idea - prioritise the important changes rather than treating every minor update as a complete overhaul. Thank you for the advice :)!
Really good ideas - I hadn't thought about adding a way for learners to report issues/out of date materials, and the disclaimer at the beginning would be a great "yes, we know, don't worry, we're working on it" nod to some of the more anxious learners who feel they can't follow along if the button looks different on their own screen.
You raise a good point about documenting resolution - I absolutely see my downfall in that in updating screens now, where I can't for the life of me remember how I managed to get the resolution to the optimum size arrgh! Well, better late than never when it comes to streamlining processes!
One more thing to consider when doing updates. If you are using Storyline 360 - get in the habit of using the media library to make your screen updates. You can edit images in the library and any change you make will apply to all slides using the image. If you need to swap out an image and do it via the library, Storyline will update all slides using the image.
I'm absolutely going to look into a Moom-esque windows app to help with my layout consistency too - you're right, it's an art in itself, and my habit of doing things by eye isn't the most time efficient (or sanity efficient)
Thank you! That's a brilliant tip. I almost never use the media library, but entirely to my own detriment - that would shave so much time off my simulation updates :)!
I just watched a TechSmith video called This is How to Make Content that Matters that posed some interesting thoughts about using simplified graphics in learning content. One of the benefits is that these graphics help future-proof your content. That made me think of this discussion, so I thought I'd share. Here are a couple of examples:
This may not be a popular opinion, but if the updates are so constant that people cannot even get trained on them, maybe eLearning might not be the appropriate medium for training. Are those changes enhancements to the UI? If they are, maybe the software isn't robust enough yet to start training people on it.
eLearning is not the answer to everything, or it's not the answer at this moment.
eLearning certainly isn't the answer to everything, I agree, but in our case it isn't just restricted to eLearning. We have an extensive knowledge base to help people navigate our product which also needs constant updating because of UI changes/enhancements (ie: new steps, new screenshots, etc...). We can't get rid of the knowledge base because users will want (and do want!) answers to quick troubleshooting issues on the fly. This is also in conjunction with live training and customer support, so we're not just relying on one method or the other, because I'd agree then that wouldn't be ideal if eLearning was all we had to help educate customers and employees!
We can't wait around for the software to be "finished" because it's ever changing and evolving, which is great that we're always expanding, it's just not great for future proofing training materials!
13 Replies
Hi Holly!
Firstly, nice avatar! Pikachu for the win :)
I've dealt with having to update screenshots and the like a few times and it can be really time consuming! A couple of things that have helped me would be:
1. Before you start swapping all the screenshots and such out, ask the people making these changes if there are any coming releases that will affect how your material will look. If they have more changes coming up soon, maybe hold off until they have released them.
2. In line with the above - before swapping everything out, see if the new change really necessitates updating the content. i.e. if a button changed color but it is in the same spot and has the same text on it, is it necessary to change all the screenshots containing that button (or rather, will the learner still fully understand everything even if you don't update that screenshot right now)?
If you can do important updates on the fly but leave small stuff for a monthly/quarterly update release, it might be time saving.
Haha why thank you! I feel it accurately represents me!
That's a really great idea - prioritise the important changes rather than treating every minor update as a complete overhaul. Thank you for the advice :)!
Really good ideas - I hadn't thought about adding a way for learners to report issues/out of date materials, and the disclaimer at the beginning would be a great "yes, we know, don't worry, we're working on it" nod to some of the more anxious learners who feel they can't follow along if the button looks different on their own screen.
You raise a good point about documenting resolution - I absolutely see my downfall in that in updating screens now, where I can't for the life of me remember how I managed to get the resolution to the optimum size arrgh! Well, better late than never when it comes to streamlining processes!
One more thing to consider when doing updates. If you are using Storyline 360 - get in the habit of using the media library to make your screen updates. You can edit images in the library and any change you make will apply to all slides using the image. If you need to swap out an image and do it via the library, Storyline will update all slides using the image.
This can be a major time saver.
That is very helpful, thank you so much!
I'm absolutely going to look into a Moom-esque windows app to help with my layout consistency too - you're right, it's an art in itself, and my habit of doing things by eye isn't the most time efficient (or sanity efficient)
Thank you! That's a brilliant tip. I almost never use the media library, but entirely to my own detriment - that would shave so much time off my simulation updates :)!
I just watched a TechSmith video called This is How to Make Content that Matters that posed some interesting thoughts about using simplified graphics in learning content. One of the benefits is that these graphics help future-proof your content. That made me think of this discussion, so I thought I'd share. Here are a couple of examples:
Oh that's a fantastic idea! Thank you so much for sharing!
This may not be a popular opinion, but if the updates are so constant that people cannot even get trained on them, maybe eLearning might not be the appropriate medium for training. Are those changes enhancements to the UI? If they are, maybe the software isn't robust enough yet to start training people on it.
eLearning is not the answer to everything, or it's not the answer at this moment.
eLearning certainly isn't the answer to everything, I agree, but in our case it isn't just restricted to eLearning. We have an extensive knowledge base to help people navigate our product which also needs constant updating because of UI changes/enhancements (ie: new steps, new screenshots, etc...). We can't get rid of the knowledge base because users will want (and do want!) answers to quick troubleshooting issues on the fly. This is also in conjunction with live training and customer support, so we're not just relying on one method or the other, because I'd agree then that wouldn't be ideal if eLearning was all we had to help educate customers and employees!
We can't wait around for the software to be "finished" because it's ever changing and evolving, which is great that we're always expanding, it's just not great for future proofing training materials!
This is a great tip. In addition to minimizing updates, it keeps the focus on what the user needs to do.
Totally agree Nancy.
According to the video, Snagit will do 1/2 the work for you in making these SUI's. Here's the link to the video and blog post: https://www.techsmith.com/blog/make-content-that-matters/
Really cool find Holley! I think it would be a great idea for the community to practice this via an Challenge of the week! Hey David, how about it? :)
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