Present Data Using Interactive Charts and Graphs #64
Interactive Charts and Graphs #64: Challenge | Recap I recently began reading The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics. It’s been on my reading list for over a year, but I never took the time to go through it. Until this week. That’s because a blog reader emailed me looking for examples of charts and graphs in e-learning courses. I’ve collected some examples from the news sites, but nothing really focused around online training courses. Knowing how important information graphics are in the community, I thought this would make a great e-learning challenge! Interactive Bar Charts Articulate community member Michael Hinze shared a creative solution for animating bar charts using Storyline 1. Using button sets and custom states, the bar graph updates based on the options selected by the user. View demo | Download Interactive Graphs with Sliders One of my favorite examples is this interactive graph from community member Joanna Kurpiewska. Shared in a recent e-learning sliders challenge, this example makes use of Storyline 2's sliders to adjust the market price and quantities of goods. View the interactive graph Interactive Charts Here's another example from Articulate Super Hero Phil Mayor. Learners are asked to add numeric data to compare their data with the chart's built-in data. View demo Challenge of the week This week your challenge is to show how interactive charts and graphs can be used in online training. You can share a static example of charts and graphs or you can create something more interactive to show and compare data. Resources It always helps to build templates and demos when you have real content. Here are a few resources that can help. If you have another source for data, please share it in the comments. 30 Resources to Find the Data You Need United States Census Bureau Charts of Major Indexes Share your e-learning work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post. Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example.. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Twitter: If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Facebook: Share your work on our Facebook page by replying to this Facebook post with a link to your example. Last week’s e-learning challenge: E-Learning Recap #63: Challenge | Recap Wishing you a chart-tastic week, E-Learning Heroes! New to the e-learning challenges? The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness.What Can You Do with Pantone’s Color of the Year? #63
Pantone Color of the Year #63: Challenge | Recap It’s official! Pantone just announced its 2015 color of the year! That means e-learning designers from around the world will be working this “stirring and flavorful shade” in their demos, courses, and templates. Challenge of the week This week your challenge is to design an e-learning template or interaction using Marsala as the primary color. Your slides can be static or built out as working interactions. Your goal is to work from a single color and show how you will carry that color across your design templates. Color Tints & Hues One easy way to work with the color is to create tints and or shades to use for secondary colors. Here’s a quick guide to Marsala’s tints and shades created with the color toner generator I created last year. Color Pairings Looking for some color combinations? Try using one of Pantone’s recommended pairings. Resources If you’re looking for ideas, consider re-designing one of the templates from our downloads section. Since the templates are already built, you’re free to focus your creativity on the colors. Here are some good blog articles on setting up templates: Here’s How to Build an E-Learning Template That Will Rock Your World Inspiring Designs to Keep Your E-Learning Courses Looking Fresh How to Create an E-Learning Template That Works Last year’s Pantone color challenge: Create a Radiant Template with Pantone’s Color of the Year Share your e-learning work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post. Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example.. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Twitter: If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Facebook: Share your work on our Facebook page by replying to this Facebook post with a link to your example. Last week’s e-learning challenge: E-Learning Recap: Challenge | Recap Wishing you a coloriffic week, E-Learning Heroes! New to the e-learning challenges? The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness.Creative Invoice Designs for Course Designers #66
Creative Invoice Designs #66: Challenge | Recap Nobody looks forward to invoicing and other back office tasks. But if you’re a freelancer, improving your administrative processes can really help save you time and reinforce the image you present to your clients. And at the end of the day, your brand is your business. Examples of Invoices A good place for invoice basics is with Word’s built-in and online templates. Word’s templates offer the perfect starting point for anyone looking for invoicing essentials. The downside to those templates is that they all look alike. Sure, there are color variations, but they’re mostly the same and aren’t branded for your own image. And that’s what this week’s invoice challenge is all about. Sources of Inspiration Clearly one place to find creative invoices is to search for what others have done. Another thing you can do is look at related documents across a range of industries. If there’s one group that wants to be paid as much as course designers it would be the utility companies. There are some sweet examples of utility bill makeovers like this one from Fast Company: How A Redesigned Electricity Bill Could Make You Smarter And Save Cash I like the infographic approach. Perhaps something like that would work to communicate visually how much development time was spent on QA or change requests? Challenge of the week This week your challenge is to create or share a creative invoice example or template. You can share something you’re already using or mock up a creative design for your entry. Tools You can use any tool you like to create your invoice template. If you decide to share your template with the community, please share it in Word or Google Docs format so others can work from your designs. Resources Think Your Invoice is Boring? Here Are The Top 25 Beautiful Designer Invoices You'll Fall in Love With 20 Creative Invoice Template Designs Invoice Like A Pro: Examples and Best Practices Invoice examples on Creative Market Share your e-learning work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post. Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example.. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Twitter: If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Facebook: Share your work on our Facebook page by replying to this Facebook post with a link to your example. Last week’s e-learning challenge: Before you begin racking up billable hours, check out the creative template makeovers your fellow community members shared last week: E-Learning Challenge #65: Challenge | Recap Wishing you a profitable week, E-Learning Heroes! New to the e-learning challenges? The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.E-Learning Makeovers: Designing A Unified Template #65
E-Learning Template Makeover #65: Challenge | Recap Happy first-challenge-of-the-year, E-Learning Heroes! Remember last year’s template makeover challenge? It was a fun one. The challenge was simple: Begin with a generic template and transform it into a real project. Your examples were some of the most amazing and creative we’ve seen (check out this recap post). It was really cool to see everyone begin with the same starter template and then build something uniquely their own. Since that time, folks have asked when we’re doing another template makeover. Well, here ya go—with a twist. Challenge of the Week This week your challenge is to find three different templates and combine them into a single template with a unified design. You don’t need to use real content in your final template design—the current placeholder content will work fine. This challenge is more about unifying design styles from multiple sources. You can work from the free templates in our downloads section or use any other templates you have. Tools You can use Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio, Microsoft PowerPoint or another tool to create your final template template. Resources Here are some articles that will help you think through your template design. If you get stuck on ideas, just ask in the comments below and we’ll share some more ideas. Steal This E-Learning Template: E-Learning Challenge | Challenge Recap How to Create an E-Learning Template That Works Here’s How to Build an E-Learning Template That Will Rock Your World Here’s How to Create Your Own E-Learning Template in PowerPoint Design Better Quizzes Using Custom Background Images Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published example and blog post. Forums: Start your own thread and share a link to your published example.. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We’ll link back to your posts so the great work you’re sharing gets even more exposure. Twitter: If you share your demos on Twitter, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can track your e-learning coolness. Facebook: Share your work on our Facebook page by replying to this Facebook post with a link to your example. Last Year's E-Learning Challenge Before you jump into this week’s template makeover, take a look at the interactive charts and graphics your fellow community shared in last year’s challenge: E-Learning Challenge #64: Challenge | Recap Wishing you a triple-awesome week, E-Learning Heroes! New To The E-Learning Challenges? The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.Design an Olympic-Themed E-Learning Template #22
This week’s challenge This week your challenge is to design an e-learning template for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. You can design a general template for the Winter Olympics, or focus your template around a specific country or event. Your goal should be to build out at least five slides for your template: Cover slide Objectives slide Quiz slide Interaction slide (tabs, timeline, etc.) Scenario slide Alternative challenge: Keeping with the sports theme, you can also celebrate the Super Bowl champions with a Seattle Seahawks-inspired design template. You know Tom will appreciate seeing what you come up with. Tools You can use Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio ’09, Articulate Studio ’13, or PowerPoint to create your Olympic template. Resources Tom has some great posts on finding design inspiration, creating starter templates and using websites to get started. If you read only one post, I’d check out the post on creating an e-learning template. It outlines the most common slide designs found in courses. Sharing your examples: Comments: Use the comments section below to share a link to your published project. The comments section allows links but not attachments. If you have a question or want to share your source files, you should use the forums. Forums: Create your own thread in our E-Learning Heroes forums and share a link to your published source file. You can also attach your project files if you’d like some help or feedback. Personal blog: Post your published example on your own blog and place a link in the comments below. Last week’s e-learning challenge To help you limber up for this week’s e-learning events, check out the freestyle examples shared in last week’s drag-and-drop challenge: Paul Alders kicked off the challenge with an iPad-inspired template that features a slide switch to unlock the course demo. Be sure to download the free .story file to learn how he built it. Great work, Paul! Patryce Smith used Storyline’s triggers and slide layers to create her medical drag-and-drop demo. Lots of ideas come to mind after viewing this example. Thanks, Patryce! Pedro Fernandez shared a neat demo that asks learners to drag-and-drop coins off the table to practice counting. Pedro shares his source file so take a look and let him know what you think. Thanks, Pedro! Jackie Van Nice gives us a creative option for choosing your seatmate in her aviation-inspired demo. Choose wisely—it’s a long flight! Check out Jackie’s blog post to learn more about her demo and design process. Gemma Henderson introduced herself to the community with a drag and rock jukebox. Don’t stop after one song. There are some hidden gems in this demo, but you’ll have to get your hands dirty if you want to hear more tunes. Gemma also wrote a blog post about her demo. Well done, Gemma! Michael Hinze shared a drag-and-drop video player he built when learning Storyline. Check out Michael’s blog post to learn more about his project. Jeff Kortenbosch created a… Well, you’ll just have to see it to believe it. Nick S. also introduced himself to the community with a Dragon Drop fighting game complete with sword and shield. Love seeing creative uses of Storyline like this one. Great demo, Nick! Montse Anderson shared a clever idea for using drag objects to compare relative sizes of hurricanes. Dan Sweigert introduced himself to the community with his drag-and-drop munchies game. Love the use of photographic objects for decision-making scenarios. Dan also shared a blog post on his idea and how he put it together. Hope to see more from Dan in future challenges! Yours truly couldn’t resist sharing a few recent drag-and-drop projects. The first is a healthy choices food game that asks you to sort food objects. Keeping with the food theme, things got a little sillier with the drag-and-drop pizza man and chocolate-loving man. Phil Mayor dug a classic drag-drop interaction out of the crates. This was one of Phil's first projects during the Storyline beta. Thanks for sharing, Phil! Note: The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. We’ll feature your work and provide feedback if you request it. Have a gold-medal week, E-Learning Heroes! Even if you’re using a trial version of Studio ’13 or Storyline, you can absolutely publish your challenge files. Just sign up for a fully functional, free trial, and have at it. And remember to post your questions and comments in the forums; we're here to help. For more e-learning tips, examples, and downloads, follow us on Twitter.
