Rapid Design Prototype
Problem
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Solution
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Audience, Tools, Responsibilities
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Problem - Solution - Audience, Tools, Responsibilities -
Problem
Designs that work for designers may not work for business reviewers.
A common problem I’ve encountered with design reviews is that a design that makes clear sense to an instructional designer may not be as clear to the business reviewers we ask to sign off on it prior to full development. This leads to sign-offs without a clear understanding of the full picture of what will be developed. Then, after investing time (and money) building out a fully developed course, the business can finally see and understand the solution—and they may not like it!
I’ve created designs in Word documents or PowerPoint where it’s clear from the feedback that no reviewer has taken the time to engage and comprehend everything that’s planned. In fact, early in my career I sent out a design plan where I neglected to delete the template content at the end of the document, and not one reviewer mentioned it! No wonder that when the first draft comes out, reviewers may disagree with the flow they couldn’t see through all of the design jargon and descriptions of what would be coming in the future, or they may not like the look, feel, and sound of the module. That late in the project cycle, this kind of communication risk can lead to time pressure that is frustrating for the designer who has to throw out work they have already done and the business that sees it’s timelines and review cycle times threatened.
Solution
Work through an iterative process of design and development that shows instead of tells.
I’ve certainly found better ways to communicate design plans in Word and PowerPoint, but with the advent of easily editable authoring systems, it can be more efficient to start an iterative design-development build to rapidly prototype a proof of concept where the designer and the business can collaborate as they determine improvements to prioritize and complete at every review.
I built the sample shown here specifically for this portfolio. It took just about an hour using Storyline 360 AI, since the videos and content were already sourced. In practice, a sample like this opens a conversation with reviewers about the look and feel of the color scheme, fonts, and video styles. It’s easy to discuss the choice and quality of AI audio or music and to see the context for any text or scripting.
The first time I applied this process across a full project was for training insurance agents on the changes between the ICD-9 and ICD-10 versions of the International Classification of Diseases used by medical and insurance professionals to code diseases, symptoms, complaints, and other aspects of a patient visit. There were multiple stakeholders involved who had equal weight in decision-making, so getting everyone in the same room was critical to success of the process. During our timeline, we set up a weekly cadence of a 2-day review period for them, a 30-minute meeting to discuss and resolve feedback, and then 2 days of editing time for me to set up the next review cycle. Week to week the output became more and more polished until the final meeting, when all stakeholders signed off and were satisfied that we had created just the right level of training for agents to prepare for the change and to locate additional information as needed.
Audience
Tenured insurance agents familiar with the ICD-9 categorization system, who now needed the ability to interpret and communicate information about ICD-10 codes.
Tools
Linked version: Storyline 360 AI, stock videos
Historical experience: Microsoft Suite, Adobe Presenter (old PowerPoint plug-in for eLearning development)
Responsibilities
For both the linked version and my historical experience shared in the Solution section, I was responsible for the full project from initiation through launch. In addition to creating the content, I was responsible for stakeholder management and meetings, project planning and reporting, and testing and implementation of the final course on the company LMS.