Can this be avoided?

Yes. When you have media on the first slide, the browser creates the play button which requires user activation. There are a couple of ways to fix this:

• Create a first slide that serves as a gate and auto advances to the second slide.
• In the player, create a cover screen. You'll still get the play button, but the cover image looks better than the black emptiness.

Here's a tutorial.

:)

Hopefully the video helps.

This issue has caused serious accessibility issues to learners with visual impairments. I watched a person try for 10 minutes before they eventually had to use a mouse and randomly click around the screen before they found the play button.

I found this fix worked. https://www.swiftelearningservices.com/remove-play-button-articulate-storyline-360/

The swift learning process is the same as the one listed above. As far as accessibility, it seems the screen reader should jump to the play button generated by the browser which in turn activate the course. Is that not the case?

Hi Tom,

It doesn't jump automatically. The company I work for has been doing a lot of accessibility testing with users with disabilities and this was a major issue. 

That said it only seems to only be an issue in Review 360 not when the course is deployed in an LMS. 

Hello! This fix does not seem to be responsive. It only works for the desktop viewpoint. Is there a way to replace the black start screen in the tablet and mobile viewpoints?

Hello Marianne, 

Have you tried adding a cover photo to your course to replace the default background with a custom image? Here's where you can add a cover photo for your course: 

You can check out this article to learn more about using cover photos for your course. 

Let me know if this works for you!

Thanks, Joe! I tried the cover photo. The black screen still appears for a moment before the photo displays, but it's better than before.

Is there a way to adjust the display properties? It would be great if we could make the photo full screen to hide the black borders. Customizing or hiding the player button would also be a nice enhancement.

I attached an example that shows the black borders. They show in all viewpoints.

Hi Marianne, 

The player adjusts the way content is shown to best fit the resolution of the device being used to view your course, so you'll want to make sure that your cover photo matches the resolution of the devices that will most be used to view your course as much as possible. 

There isn't a way to hide the player button in the settings, but this sounds like a great feature to have. I’ll be happy to pass your thoughts on to our product team, but you can also feel free to detail them more through a feature request! 

I just launched a new course and was wondering why it looked that way on screen.

Thanks for the tips and update!