What is the most you've had to redesign and activity/question?
Feb 13, 2013
This one is driving me nuts. I have one mandatory course (ugg) that has a section where the learner watches a video and then is asked to put the steps they just viewed in order. I displayed the steps as images grabbed right from the video. I made the instructions as clear as I could. I tested it. My test group got it. We launched it to the organization. AND NO ONE SEEMS TO GET IT.
After some feedback from learners, I reword the question with clearer instructions and more visually distinct states of images on the screen. AND NO ONE SEEMS TO GET IT.
Finally today, I took the whole section out. Changed it to a simple pick one question. HOPE SOMEONE GETS IT. Frustration and lack of time to spend on this particular one has led me to this, but it certainly will be redesigned next time.
Any "frustration" design stories out there to share? Have you ever designed something you think is straight forward and clear but it doesn't get the response you expected?
3 Replies
Unfortunately, it happens. And I post a survey at the end of the modules, so sometimes I wonder if it's only the ones who don't get it who are commenting on it but so frustrating!!! Before releasing I do as you do and have people unrelated to the content do the module. I think where I'm potentially getting it wrong is that it's not the not-so-computer-savvy people who I am asking for feedback. There are people who use computers every day to those who struggle with a mouse, and especially when mandatory it's tough.
I have found that people seem to have more trouble with drag and drop, so I have been wording my directions to say 'click and drag' rather than drag and drop--I am hoping that is helping but sometimes it's hard to know.
Good luck!
In a current project I thought I was introducing a nice touch by allowing learners to see something for a timed period, with a visible countdown, before moving automatically to a feedback slide. I had a button which allowed learners to view the slide again if they wanted to.
I built about 3 slides that did this. The client loved the content but dismissed the automation. I guess if I'd thought about it more, perhaps I would have questioned whether I needed the automation as it wasn't really a time trial.
hey ho.
Another story...another project involved some very careful and clear (as we thought) on screen instrctions to complete certain fields. As far as I remember it involved something like 'see the 'ABC' link below', and there was a bold, large ABC link down the screen a little way. I had a support call from an organisation senior manager who couldn't work out what to do. When I pointed out the link (which he then confirmed seeing ('Ah haa!') on his screen, he said he was very grateful, and to please excuse his being dense - 'I'm in IT'.
John.a.
I had a application window that would pop up when you pressed a button. Instead of leaving that window against the jumble of stuff that was going on in the background, I isolated it against a solid color background so the user could focus just on the screen. Then I preceeded to highlight various sections of the window and describing the different parts. I thought it would be fine, but the client didn't like it. He said he got lost because he didn't know where the window was accoring to his desktop. So I had to redo a bunch of slides.
Sometimes things that makes sense to us doesn't make sense to others.
Tracy - Instead of having the users watch the entire video in one setting, can you break it up into the different steps with a small caption/audio intro of each step? That way the user can associate the image with whats going.
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.