Context

The client is a self-employed stained glass artist who recently began teaching workshops at a local event space. During workshops, she guides 5-7 participants through the process of making a stained glass sun catcher. The event space rents the location in 4 hour blocks and charges additional fees if the host runs over their allotted time. The client hopes to eventually scale these workshops up to include more participants and increase revenue.

Problem

The client is well-versed in her craft but has no formal training in instruction. As a result, she has run into issues that she needs to address before expanding enrollment. The issues are:

1. Some participants have sustained very minor injuries including cuts and burns while working with new and unfamiliar tools/chemicals. The client hopes to improve safety and avoid the loss of time that accompanies an injury.

2. Several workshops have run overtime, resulting in additional fees and a loss of revenue. She stated a number of different reasons why the workshops have run overtime, including the following:

• Participants enter with little knowledge of stained glass, requiring lengthy bits of instruction throughout. the workshop.

• Participants work at different paces, which can delay instruction and demonstrations.

• Weekday workshops enroll a higher percentage of elderly participants, some of whom experience limited mobility. In some instances, she has had to restructure the setup of tables and tools to accommodate user needs.

Solution

The client and I determined the best solution for refining the workshops would be the development of two resources:

Resource 1: SnipGlass Guide to Stained Glass Safety: Pre-Workshop Training and Questionnaire

This resource, developed in Articulate Storyline 360, introduces the stained glass process. At each step, participants read about and see images of the tools & materials used, then learn about the safety precautions associated with those tools and materials. This training emphasizes the most pressing concerns so that the client can review them at the beginning of each workshop, activating the participants’ prior knowledge. This will reduce the in-workshop instructional time while also ensuring that each cohort is more knowledgeable about the process and prepared to take their safety seriously.

Included in with the presentation is a brief questionnaire. The first question asks about experience level with stained glass, allowing the client to identify anyone whose expertise she can leverage. The second question asks about concerns of physical health including limited mobility, allowing the client to arrange stations that can meet the needs of participants who cannot move as freely throughout the space.

Per the request of the client, there are no assessments or checks for understanding in the training, as she worried that might deter completion. To match her brand identity, she requested that the course remain mostly casual and friendly, and that it use her logo and brand specific colors.

Resource 2: User Guide

The “user guide,” developed in Adobe Illustrate, outlines the stained glass process, following the exact sequence covered in the pre-workshop training. This allows for users to revisit key information, promoting retention. In also serves as a guide for those whose pace does not match that of rest of the participants.

Text-Based Storyboard

I worked with the client to simplify the process of making stained glass by categorizing each action into five sequential steps. We then worked to identify 2-3 key tools/materials used at each step, eliminating those with common sense applications. The client identified the most important information about each tool, material, and step, and I wrote original text for each. The client suggested edits as she saw necessary, resulting in a final draft.

Visual Mockups

I used Adobe XD to efficiently create visual mockups and maintained regular communication with my client about the overall aesthetic of the project. I created the following five templates: a title slide, text-based slides, content overview slides, content-rich slides, and survey question slides. After a number of iterations, I received approval to build out the project in Storyline.

User Guide

Reflection & Next Steps

This was my first-ever opportunity to build out a full project for a client, and as such it was a major learning experience. It provided me with a much better understanding of Storyline, Adobe XD and Adobe Illustrator, and a number of takeaways, should I revisit this project, or take on a similar one.

• I used Adobe XD to create visual mockups for the five main slide types that I used in the project. I did this because I knew that it would be quicker and easier to make adjustments. Unfortunately, I didn't utilize the program as well as I would have liked. In the future, I plan to employ a more iterative approach by fully developing all of the slides in XD and creating an interactive prototype. Not only do I expect this will result in a more polished end result, but I anticipate a smoother and quicker build-out when I move to Storyline.

• While I'm generally pleased with the user experience, I wish I had taken measures to ensure greater accessibility. If I were to do this again, I might consider options such as optional audio.

• I’ve largely achieved the aesthetic that I aimed for, but I also understand that there is still much room for improvement in this project. In particular, I hope to be more intentional about my use of negative space and spacing. I feel that the User Guide would benefit from a final iteration during which the spacing is made more uniform.

• In future projects, I believe I can do better to reduce the word count (& cognitive load!) on many of the slides as well as the user guide.

While the Storyline course is essentially complete, it will require xAPI implementation to be of significant use to my client, who does not currently plan to use an LMS. I'm currently learning about xAPI and Javascript through Devlin Peck's youtube tutorials, and hope to have this learning experience finished for my client in the very near future.