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The Details
The project is a scenario-based learning activity for new employees at the Empire United athletics club. The goal of the project is to help new employees understand their role and responsibilities; specifically, how to open and close the facility with safety and security in mind. This training provides new hires with key practice and facility policies and procedures.
Audience: Newly hired coaches who lack experience in both practice and facility management
Responsibilities: Needs Analysis, Instructional Design, eLearning Development, and Graphic Design
Tools Used: MindMeister, Adobe XD, Articulate Storyline, Adobe Illustrator
Client: Empire United Athletics Club
Year: 2022
Overview
My client was Empire United Athletics Club, a competitive soccer and field hockey club serving youth-high school athletes in upstate New York.
The club approached me because they did not have a formal onboarding process. New staff did not know the facility safety and security protocols, which led to frequent problems for the staff, frustration from management, a negative experience for the athletes, and high employee turnover rates. Through several conversations with the client, and review of the existing policies I determined that the staff did not have the knowledge to complete their expected tasks. I then proposed a scenario based learning experience to help employees understand their responsibilities. This would help solve the client’s greatest pain points.
Process
I began by meeting with the client to learn more about the organization, employees, and current training structures in place. We then worked together to create an action map and prioritized the issues that were most negatively impacting my client’s business operations.
After we had developed the areas of focus, I moved on to writing the storyboard, creating visual design mock-ups, prototyping, and developing the final project getting client feedback and approval at each step along the way.
Action Map
I began with a discussion with my client about the organization’s current onboarding process and materials. We then discussed all of the tasks the employees needed to complete each shift. With all of the tasks identified we then focused on the issues that were causing the most disruption and financial loss for the organization. Since my client employees were typically at the start of their careers, we wanted to create clear expectations for the employees in terms of their performance, athlete safety, and facility security.
Text-Based Storyboard
When creating the text-based storyboard, I used the issues my client was facing to develop realistic scenarios that their employees would encounter each shift.
Many of my client’s employees were not only new to the organization, but often they were starting their first jobs. Because of their inexperience we decided to start the scenario before the employees arrived at their shift through to the end of their shift when it was time to close down the facility. We set up five scenarios based on my client’s experiences.
I created two potential “mentor” characters that the new employee could select to be their guide and who could assist them if they were struggling in a scenario.
The final storyboard included a full script, questions, answer choices, consequences, and guidance from the mentor character. Once I had approval from the client, I moved to the visual mock-ups.
Visual Mockups
To create the visual mock-ups, I used Adobe XD. I began with my client’s logo to create a color scheme and then went through several iterations to get the look and feel of the project. I wanted to ensure that the imagery was in line with the goal of the project and the organization.
Since the organization works with youth, I experimented with brighter colors and playful graphics. I wanted the experience to be informative and fun for the learner.
Once I was satisfied with the look and feel, I moved onto the visual storyboard.
Visual Storyboard
I used the visual storyboard to pull the elements from the text-based storyboard and the visual mock-ups together, This process prepared me to move into the interactive prototype. My visual storyboard included the text, visuals, and the programming for the animations on screen.
Interactive Prototype
I created the interactive prototype to ensure that the full development of my project went smoothly. By creating the base of each slide type (text and visual placement, triggers, layers, and buttons) I was able to develop the rest of the project more quickly with few issues in the full development phase.
I used my visual mock-ups from Adobe XD to set up my prototype in Storyline. I created the introductory slides as well as two of the five scenarios. During this stage I ensured that my programming was correct, my visuals were in place, and that the timing of my animations were appropriate for the user experience. During this stage, I got to experiment with different triggers and states to create the fun look and feel I wanted my learners to experience.
Throughout this process I received feedback from my client as well as other members of the instructional design community. I utilized the feedback I received to enhance my project, most significantly in adjusting the timing of the animation scenes.
I was having some difficulty determining what would get the learners attention without causing distraction from their learning experience. Through adjustments and feedback rounds I was able to get this portion of the project to work the way I had envisioned.
Final Development
With the first two scenarios complete I used the template I had created to add the other three scenarios and a closing scene. Once all five questions were complete I duplicated the project and changed the images for my second mentor character. Once full development was complete I went through a QA process and received feedback from my client.
I was very happy with the effect the animations in my project created. Creating the character reactions was a fun process and I think they added to the impact of the overall project.
Results
My client was very happy with the product, and they plan to use the learning experience during their next new employee onboarding process. My client also plans to utilize the job aid I created in conjunction with this project to help their employees be successful during their shift.
During this process I gained new visual design knowledge as well as how to use visual design tools in greater depth. Because of this process, I’m more confident in my ability to use Adobe XD and Adobe Illustrator effectively for future projects.
In the future, I would work with my client to schedule more regular review deadlines. While my client wanted to review the project at each stage, it was difficult to set up review times which extended the project timeline.
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