How Rise Canvas was created
I’ve had several requests to detail how I created Rise Canvas Rather than trying to respond to everyone via DM, LinkedIn etc, I thought I’d detail everything here in one post. I’m a web/app designer in addition to being an ID (and some other side hustles that pay the bills!) so this has been a bit of a background passion project initially started for my own work… This will be a long read, so I’ll write it in several parts… This will be fairly non-technical as this isn’t really the place to discuss technical detail.. Part 1 coming next…Worried about AI taking your job?
The tools have changed. Your judgement hasn't. In this Rise course learn the best practices of how to work alongside AI to move faster, create sharper content, and stay the most valuable thing in the room. The L&D professionals pulling ahead right now aren't the ones who know the most about AI. They're the ones who know how to work with it. AI is already in your workflow, whether you've invited it or not. This course shows you how to use it deliberately, critically, and well. The AI ShiftPeer Pod Coming Soon: “New to Instructional Design” — Who’s Joining Us?
We’re kicking off a brand-new Peer Pod for anyone who’s new to instructional design and you’re invited! 🎉 Peer Pods are 4-week learning groups where community members explore a topic together through weekly prompts, curated resources, and shared discussion. Whether you’re a few days or several months into your role, this is your chance to connect with peers, reflect on key topics, and build confidence together. Here’s what we’ll explore: ✨ What to focus on as you get started 📦 Intro to Articulate 360 + course design best practices 🤝 Tips for working with SMEs 💻 Best practices for incorporating AI By the end, you’ll walk away with a stronger foundation and a group of peers cheering you on. 🗓 Start Date: Monday, January 12, 2026 Participants will be added to the private Peer Pod group about a week before we begin. 👉 Want to join? Fill out the registration form. 💬 Your turn: What Peer Pod topics do you want to see next? If you could join a focused 4-week learning group, what topic would you choose? Drop your ideas below so we can build pods around what you want most. 🙌Competitor Analysis - Product Comparisons (need help)
Hey everyone, First post here. Sorry if this has been answered, but after a search I really couldn't find what I was looking for. I'm curious if anyone has done some really cool/engaging product comparisons using Rise or Storyline? I am building a training about a competitor analysis we have done, and I want to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of our products vs theirs in an engaging way. In some cases it is just a 1 to 1 comparison, but in other cases it is our 1 product being compared to 4 competitors. Was hoping to get some inspiration on how I can move away from a boring "table style" comparison to something more visually pleasing and also somewhat interactive. Thanks for the support and happy to be here in this community.JavaScript for Flipcards for STORYLINE!!!
One of the great features of rise is the flip card animations and how great they look. It's one thing that Storyline has never had... UNTIL NOW!!! If you place your front card directly in front of your back card and then copy their ID's into this javascript the animation works PERFECTLY!! https://360.articulate.com/review/content/23b1e255-6853-40d5-bc47-59f5630ce70a/review // ------------------------------------ // STORYLINE FLIP CARDS // ------------------------------------ // Add one front/back pair for each card. const FLIP_CARDS = [ { frontId: "CARD_1_FRONT_ID", backId: "CARD_1_BACK_ID" }, { frontId: "CARD_2_FRONT_ID", backId: "CARD_2_BACK_ID" }, { frontId: "CARD_3_FRONT_ID", backId: "CARD_3_BACK_ID" } ]; // ------------------------------------ // CUSTOMIZATION // ------------------------------------ const FLIP_DURATION = 600; const PERSPECTIVE = 1000; // Horizontal flip: const FLIP_AXIS = "Y"; // Use "X" instead for a vertical flip. // const FLIP_AXIS = "X"; const prefersReducedMotion = window.matchMedia && window.matchMedia("(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)").matches; const duration = prefersReducedMotion ? 0 : FLIP_DURATION; // ------------------------------------ // CREATE EACH FLIP CARD // ------------------------------------ FLIP_CARDS.forEach((cardInfo) => { const front = object(cardInfo.frontId); const back = object(cardInfo.backId); let isFlipped = false; let isAnimating = false; const rotation = (degrees) => `perspective(${PERSPECTIVE}px) rotate${FLIP_AXIS}(${degrees}deg)`; // Keep the two card faces aligned. front.style.transformOrigin = "center center"; back.style.transformOrigin = "center center"; front.style.transformStyle = "preserve-3d"; back.style.transformStyle = "preserve-3d"; // Hide the reverse side of each group. front.style.backfaceVisibility = "hidden"; back.style.backfaceVisibility = "hidden"; // Safari compatibility. front.style.webkitBackfaceVisibility = "hidden"; back.style.webkitBackfaceVisibility = "hidden"; // Smooth flip animation. front.style.transition = `transform ${duration}ms cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1), ` + `filter ${duration}ms ease`; back.style.transition = `transform ${duration}ms cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1), ` + `filter ${duration}ms ease`; // Starting positions. front.style.transform = rotation(0); back.style.transform = rotation(180); front.style.filter = "drop-shadow(0px 4px 6px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14))"; back.style.filter = "drop-shadow(0px 4px 6px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.14))"; // Only the visible face should receive clicks. front.style.pointerEvents = "auto"; back.style.pointerEvents = "none"; function flipCard() { if (isAnimating) { return; } isAnimating = true; isFlipped = !isFlipped; if (isFlipped) { // Front rotates away; back rotates into view. front.style.transform = rotation(180); back.style.transform = rotation(360); front.style.filter = "drop-shadow(0px 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08))"; back.style.filter = "drop-shadow(0px 10px 14px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.22))"; } else { // Return to the front. front.style.transform = rotation(0); back.style.transform = rotation(180); front.style.filter = "drop-shadow(0px 10px 14px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.22))"; back.style.filter = "drop-shadow(0px 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08))"; } window.setTimeout(() => { // Activate only the face currently showing. front.style.pointerEvents = isFlipped ? "none" : "auto"; back.style.pointerEvents = isFlipped ? "auto" : "none"; isAnimating = false; }, duration); } // Clicking either side flips the card. front.click(flipCard); back.click(flipCard); });Less Is More Is Not Just About Content, but About Learning Experience
After working in instructional design for many years, I've come to realize that "less is more" is often misunderstood. It is usually associated with simplifying content, such as making courses shorter, reducing information, or avoiding overload. But in my experience, it goes beyond that. Even when we have correctly identified what learners need to know, do, or change in order to meet business goals, there is still another important question: How should we design the learning experience itself? The goal should be to help learners learn with the least unnecessary effort. Not by removing depth or rigor, but by removing friction that does not contribute to learning. Over the years, I've seen many different approaches to learning design. Some learning experiences feel under-designed, where the lack of structure or intention makes it difficult for learners to stay engaged or understand the purpose of the content. I've also seen cases where, in an effort to avoid being "too simple" or "boring," additional layers of interaction, visual elements, or gamification are introduced. Many of us have probably spent hours building advanced interactions in Storyline or carefully structuring a Rise course because we wanted the learning experience to feel more engaging. There is nothing wrong with using these features. The question is whether they genuinely support learning. Sometimes these additions are driven more by what the tool allows us to build than by what learners actually need. As a result, learners may end up spending more time completing interactions than understanding, retaining, or applying the knowledge that really matters. This is especially important in corporate learning. Learners are often balancing training with their daily responsibilities. Time is limited, and attention is limited. That is why I believe we should be intentional about where we add complexity. Interaction is not the problem. In fact, meaningful interaction is essential for learning. The key word is meaningful. The most valuable learning experiences are those that help learners understand concepts more deeply, retain what they have learned, and apply that knowledge in real work situations. This is where I choose to focus my design effort. Not on adding interaction for its own sake, but on identifying the moments in learning that truly matter. Instead of asking, "What cool Storyline feature can I use here?", I think we should be asking, "How does this interaction help learners understand, retain, or apply what they need to learn?" When we design with that intention, learning can often become simpler while also becoming more effective. That's the kind of learning experience I continue to strive for. I'd love to hear how you decide when an interaction is truly worth adding.ID Toolbox
What are your go to tools you use everyday and wouldn't be without in your authoring process? Here's mine. There's one thing they all have in common, and for me it's the important bit, nothing gets uploaded. They're plain HTML and JavaScript running in your browser. When you drop a .story file, an image or a SCORM zip on one of these, it gets read in memory on your own machine and that's the end of it. No server, no account, no sign up. Most of what I work on is client material and I'd rather not be posting it to a third party site. I suspect I'm not alone in that. They're all completely free, no trial, no limits, no nonsense! Story Auditor Variable health checks Storyline project files. Finds broken and at risk JavaScript references, unused variables and script issues before you ship. Story Documenter A complete written specification from a .story file. Every slide, every trigger in plain English, every quiz answer etc, ready to print or share with clients. Great for creating storyboards. Image Press Resize, compress and convert images in the browser. E-learning size presets, a target file size, batch zip download, and image metadata stripped on output. Great free tool for managing images for projects. SCORM Bench Run a SCORM package against a logging LMS runtime, without uploading it. Every API call visible, live data model, the manifest checked. Works with SCORM 1.2 and 2004. And a quick question; what's the thing in your workflow that still doesn't have a tool? These only existed because I moaned about something enough and then got annoyed enough to fix it!Storyline Theme Builder
Inspired by the work of randykepple and DShaw, I decided to take my internal theme builder to the next level and make it available to the entire community. It has been integrated and improved with Claude. This standalone, HTML-based tool allows you to create complete Storyline 360 color and font themes without needing Storyline to be installed or running. You can export your themes as .athmx files, share them with your team, and import them directly into Storyline whenever needed. For PowerPoint users, the tool also supports importing .thmx theme files. PowerPoint themes define 12 colors, including two hyperlink colors. During import, the Followed Hyperlink color is ignored, while the remaining colors are automatically mapped to their corresponding Storyline theme colors. The converted theme can then be exported as a valid Storyline .athmx file. The Storyline-specific colors that do not exist in PowerPoint such as Control 1, Question - Correct, Question - Incorrect, Custom 1, Custom 2, are initially assigned automatically. Before exporting the final theme, you can easily replace these defaults with any colors you prefer. In addition to theme creation, the app includes several utilities designed to streamline your workflow: A Color Contrast Checker to help you create more accessible color combinations. A Color Blindness Simulator to preview how your theme may appear to people with different types of color vision deficiency. An Image Color Extractor that samples colors from an image and automatically maps them to Storyline’s 16 theme color slots. Google Fonts integration (internet connection required), allowing you to enter a font’s exact name as it appears in Google Fonts for automatic recognition or simply paste the embed code generated by Google Fonts. Additional tools and widgets that simplify theme creation and help maintain a polished, consistent visual style across your projects. The goal of this application is to make creating, customizing, converting, and sharing Storyline themes faster, easier, and more consistent. Whether you are building a theme from scratch, converting an existing PowerPoint theme, or developing a color palette inspired by your brand, the tool is designed to save time while giving you complete control over the final result. I hope you find it useful, and I welcome any feedback or suggestions for future improvements. Storyline Theme StudioSwatch Library
A recent post by randykepple inspired me to share this. Randy's solution is also great so check that out! With Swatch Library you can create a palette per brand or project, and every swatch is one click to copy, in hex or RGB. Nothing to install, no sign-up, and nothing stored on a server. Your colours save automatically in your own browser. Type or paste a code, bulk-paste a whole list at once or, in Chrome/Edge, use the eyedropper to pick colours from anywhere on your screen, a client's website, a brand PDF, a Storyline slide. You can drop a logo or brand asset onto the tool and it will pull the dominant colours out and build a palette from them. Everything happens in the browser, nothing is uploaded anywhere. You untick any strays, name it, and it is done. I find this the quickest way to get a client palette in. Beyond that there is a WCAG 2.2 contrast checker built in, set a foreground and background colour, get the ratio, and see pass/fail for AA and AAA body text, large text and non-text elements like icons and focus indicators. That is useful enough on its own, but the thing I am most pleased with is the contrast grid. Each palette has a Grid button that opens a matrix of every colour pair in that palette, painted with the actual pair so you can see at a glance which combinations work for text and which do not. One click on any cell opens the full checker for that pair. If you have ever wondered whether your brand colours are actually safe to use together, this answers it quickly. There is also a colour vision preview. A Vision button on each palette shows it as it appears to people with protanopia, deuteranopia and tritanopia, plus a greyscale row for print. It automatically flags any pairs that become hard to tell apart, named with their perceptual distance score. Each swatch has a tints and shades button that opens a nine-step ramp from light to dark, and you can click any step to copy it or add it to the palette. Useful for hover states and backgrounds. You can drag swatches to reorder or move them between palettes, filter palettes once your library grows, and use Export/Import to back everything up or share a brand palette file with your team so everyone's working from the same set. There's a built-in guide for the full tour. It can be used directly in the linked Rise course, or used online via the link. All free, no downloads, no signup, no nonsense! Swatch Library - Rise Swatch Library Onlinecriteria for rise vs. storyline?
Hi all, I'm curious if anyone has established criteria that they use to evaluate whether Rise or Storyline is the best tool to build their requested training. Beyond the obvious regarding development and functionality abilities (e.g., rapid development vs. more customizable), does anyone have content-specific criteria that informs what tool they use to build their courses? I work in a compliance department so we've traditionally used Storyline for more 'gated' hand-held overviews of foundational concepts and Rise for content that iterates on those foundations. thanks!
