Instructional Designers (and the Department of Louise) are important

The article I’m sharing first appeared in my news feed a few weeks ago, and I’ve read through it several times since then. Having began my career in more of a Generalist role, I understand how difficult it can be to balance policy and training. This is especially true when the policy or training isn’t well written, which can even happen in highly functioning organizations.

As the writer states, maybe we’ve missed a vital point, having been unable to view the lesson that preceded the question. I’m hoping Best Buy will respond, and she’ll be able to amend this article or write a follow-up. From the outside looking in, I feel like input from an Instructional Designer would certainly help in this situation.

Sometimes our role goes beyond designing and developing training. Sometimes we need to play the role of Louise, not necessarily to be contrarian, but to ensure project success. (Check out the article and the author’s reference to humorist Dave Barry.) As I often tell Subject Matter Experts, sometimes we don’t see the hole or error with a process policy until we sit down to discuss it in depth, step by step to begin training design. In my opinion, it is part of the the designer’s job to fill in those holes to make sure a learner can easily grasp each step and each piece of new information.

The last thing you ever want as a designer or presenter is eye rolls from your audience. I’m worried the Best Buy employee who shared this via his/her Twitter feed is a little less engaged with the organization, his/her function, and especially with the training process. Again, here’s hoping the author will hear back from Best Buy, and we can find clarification on this policy, this lesson, and the differences between greeting and welcoming customers.

Viral Best Buy Training Questions Is A Perfect Example Of Clueless Corporate Policies

Do you have thoughts on the question example and semantics in the article or the balance between well-written policy and well-designed training? Share this in the comments area!

Using Video as an Articulate “Background”

I love using a (carefully selected) image as a background in a training slide, whether that is produced using Articulate products or PowerPoint.  Recently, I had been wondering what it might look like to use a video as a background instead, and while working on travel plans for a training session, I was inspired to create this quick example.

I’m not sure I would use a “busy” or cluttered video, nor would I want video background on a lengthy slide.  I think both of those would create more distraction than depth, but with this simple topic and simple slide I believe the video looks great.

Use the link below to see the example of a video background in the mock Travel Expense Policy training!

Click here

Where can you find inspiration for more visual PPT?

You may recall a recent post that discussed screen ratios for PowerPoint. (Using a 16:9 format is better suited for the widescreen technology the vast majority of us use today.) As our first instructor-led training session approaches, PowerPoint is at the forefront of my mind. While they’re industry leaders and wonderfully knowledgeable, our subject matter experts aren’t the best designers. I spent a lot of time sharing PPT tips, design suggestions, and facilitation ideas.

It isn’t always easy to explain design best practice to someone who doesn’t see PowerPoint as a visual communication tool. We suggest 20 or fewer words on each page. (And in my opinion, 20 still seems like too many!) We suggest high-quality art. Still, most presentations I see are text laden, using clip art, on a generic/corporate template. Besides well designed PPT files, what can I share to communicate good examples of visual design?

It hit me one night while cooking dinner. (Our kitchen has a small pass through where I can keep an eye on the local, evening news when it is my turn to prepare a meal.) Our television weather persons/meteorologist are great visual communicators!

Their graphics share a wealth of information with minimal text. Based on a simple picture (combined with their knowledgeable narration) I know how to dress for the next day’s temperature and whether I should pack an umbrella or get my raincoat and weather boots from the closet. I can even determine what may be the best or worst time to take the dog for a walk. Their graphics tell me if there is any risk for storms (which is extremely important news for a native of tornado alley whose dog has storm aversions). During this time of year, there is even a simple graphic to alert me to pollen levels, which can help me decide if I should take allergy medicine or postpone washing my car.

Now imagine if our meteorologist or newscasters attempted to present all that data and science with text instead of a graphic, reading from a slide instead of articulating more information about a well designed image. It might be easier for them (or the staff graphic designer) to simply type out the data or information, but it would certainly make less of an impact on their audience. What if you had to read the weather forecast instead of seeing it? “Today the forecast is mild so you may want to take a light sweater. There is a chance of rain tomorrow morning so allow extra time during your commute to work. You may need to consider an anti-histamine as pollen levels continue to rise. A weather system forming along the west coast may impact your outdoor weekend plans, but we’ll have a better idea of what may happen within in the next few days.”

Ironically, I’ve described a visual design success using text, but if you’re interested of seeing this sort of visual design in action pay close attention next time you’re watching television news and the weather forecast airs. You can also click here to visit the social media page for my local news station to see many of the graphics I’ve mentioned above, and I’m sure you can find similar images from your own local station.

Is there a place, a source where you find inspiration for visual design? Be sure to share your ideas in the comment space!


Simple “tools” to pack for your instructor led training sessions

I spent some time late last year traveling to a company orientation event, based at a hotel just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Let’s face it- hosting an event at a hotel conference center is convenient.  Your learners “commute” down the elevator each morning to the event, where hot coffee and fresh pastries away.  At lunch, the catering staff arrives with your lunch, and at the end of day the group “commutes” again back to the safety and comfort of their hotel rooms.  (Or in our group’s case, we commuted to steakhouse across the street for dinner!)

During the training and on-boarding sessions I realized there are a lot of things readily available in the office that can also come in handy when you’re training off-site.  Unfortunately, you can’t take the entire office with you when you’re on the road. You can drop a few essentials into a reusable grocery bag or other tote to make your event easier to administer (or to be better prepared for the unexpected).


Power strip– Whether it is the presenters’ laptops, projectors, or tablets, there never seem to be enough outlets.  Drop a power strip into your bag to ensure everyone can charge the plethora of electronic devices we all carry.

A few sheets of color paper or color sticky notes– These can comes in handy in so many ways- taking notes; collecting and sorting ideas based on different themes, options, or answers in an interaction; grouping and labeling different ideas or participants for an interaction.  The possibilities are near endless.

BONUS- I like to print handouts on colored paper to make it easier to reference what learners should be looking at.  (Example:  “The interview questions to avoid or re-phrase are printed on the orange handout.”)

Fun size candy–  Fun size, individually wrapped candies are easy to pack, and who doesn’t need a treat or sugar kick at the end of a busy training day?

Egg timer–  Even though most smart phones have a timer, remember the above comment about having enough outlets to keep devices charged?  An egg timer is small, expensive, and can come in handy when other devices have low batteries.

Smart home device or speaker– And even though it is another device to connect plug in, I’ve realized in the past few weeks (since I started working remotely) how helpful an smart home device could be in the office or classroom.  At our home, we currently use the Amazon Echo Dot.

“Alexa, set a timer for ten minutes.”
“Alexa, play background music.”
“Alexa,…”

The possibilities are near endless.

Fresh batteries– Since we’re using a tote bag, why not toss in some spare batteries for your computer’s wireless mouse or remote?  It would be inconvenient to have to “pause” your presentation because the remote control dies, and you can’t move your presentation forward.  This simple addition to your packing helps you be prepared.

Bluetooth or External Speaker– If you don’t have a smart speaker (as mentioned above), you may have a Bluetooth or other external speaker lying around.  During last quarter’s training event, we played a video from the training leader’s laptop.  Unfortunately, his laptop speakers were not strong enough to project the audio to the entire room.  Thankfully, he carries external speakers to plug into the computer to address the issue.

Scissors- Why not?  Compact, easily tossed into your tote bag, and you never know when you may need them!

Painter tape– As mentioned, a hotel conference center makes an excellent location to host your event!  Hang any posters and tears offs from your flip chart using painter tape to prevent damaging the walls.

Safety pins– It is easy to hang material to the wall using the painter tape until the room has “walls” made of drapes.  Yes, I encountered this once, and have traveled with safety pins packed even since! 

Paper clip- Similar to scissors, tape, and the other items listed, a small pack of paper clips won’t take much space in your tote bag.  You never know how they may come in handy during a training session.

Hole punch– Buy one of the small hole punches designed to fit into a binder to save on space.

Stapler– Be sure to grab a compact stapler from a vendor’s table at the next professional conference you attend!

Small printer/scanner– I had never considered this until the fall event.  One of the field managers in attendance carries this device any time he travels to our varying offices, customers, and events.  Easily attached to a laptop, we were able to print certificates and other handouts and scan the new hires’ required paperwork and information back to the Human Resources office easily.

Is there some other small items to you like to pack to be best prepared for a training event that takes place away from your home base?

PowerPoint Screen Ratios

I’ll preface my quick PowerPoint tip by sharing I’m a big fan of football. During autumn, many weekends revolve around when my favorite team plays. I often use the football “visual” when I explain PowerPoint screen ratios to other users or subject matter experts who are designing a new presentation, so it makes sense to share that same explanation here.

Simply stated, screen ratios are important. You may have flipped through the television channels to see an older television series or movie playing, and considering most of us now own wider screen televisions, the picture would have been a 4:3 ratio. Dark colors fill the left and right margins to direct your eye to the center of the screen, to the feature that is formatted in more of a square shape. It probably looks something like this:

Not the most pleasing way to view television, but considering it is your favorite old film, you adjust.

Now imagine you are watching a football game in this format. (It was only a few years ago, before broadcasting was formatted to widescreen, that we DID watch in this ratio!) You’re only going to see a portion of the field. You may miss movement in the backfield, or you may not be able to see the entire defensive schematic.

Similar to what you see on an old television or when you watch older shows or movies on a newer, wider screen, why would you want to build your PowerPoint in a ratio (4:3) that doesn’t fit most modern screens?

After you have brainstormed and sketched out the design for your presentation (more on that at another time), take these few short steps to update the ratio:

  1. Open PowerPoint.
  2. Visit the DESIGN tab.
  3. Look to the far left for the button labeled PAGE SET UP.
  4. A pop-up/dialog will appear where you can edit how the presentation will appear on the screen- SLIDES SIZED FOR– and here you will select 16:9.
  5. When you click OKAY you will notice the slide is expanded, wider and fills more of your screen.

In addition to providing more space for your content, this simple change immediately makes your presentation look more modern (even when you’re still growing your visual design skills).

Happy New Year!

The transition between years is a time we often reflect on the past and prescribe changes for the future, which makes an update here most appropriate. During 2018 there was plenty of change, and I’m very excited for the potential and opportunity 2019 holds!

First, effective late August 2018 I began working remotely. When my significant other was laid-off and then relocated for a new opportunity, I wanted to follow. My employer was gracious enough to allow me to begin working remotely from our new home, and I’m to first person in our department to take this leap! (Interestingly, Human Resources is considered to be one of the fastest growing work from home fields. It makes sense for our organization, where most of our interaction is with persons at field locations throughout the US.)

I commute back to our corporate office, 120 miles each way, once each month to catch up with other staff members, subject matter experts, and to have face-to-face time with my colleagues. I’ve even been commuting some via train, which has been a nice experience! After several months in my new office (also known as “the spare bedroom”) I’ve adjusted to the quiet, but I miss the social interactions of an office terribly.

As mentioned, the new year holds a great deal of potential, including launching several projects that have been in the works for some time. It will be nice to further build on these strategic ideas, develop a foundation for more detailed training curriculum, and watch our function grow. Another goal for 2019 is to keep my blog and portfolio up to date. Not only does this challenge my creativity and offer me a chance to get my ideas onto “paper”, it helps me share my ideas and capabilities with others. I’m already drafting and brainstorming a few PowerPoint tips and some suggestions for instructor-led training events.

I’m sure as I learn more about my craft, favorite softwares (Articulate Storyline and Microsoft PowerPoint) and grow the training function for my current employer, I’ll be inspired and prompted to share more ideas with you. I hope your 2019 is also filled with potential and prospects- both professionally and personally!

One of my favorite Storyline 360 features

Often times I will include a brief introduction with details about my design thoughts or processes.  With this post I’ll refrain from doing so.  Instead, this simple presentation explain one of my favorite new features in Storyline 360 or Storyline 3.

Click here to check it out!

Get To Know You Bingo

As I’ve mentioned on several occasions, I’m charged with planning and hosting instructor led training, which includes organizing team building activities.  With each training event, we’ll visit an off-site facility such as an escape room or adventure course, but we’ll also use free time between presenters to further build the team’s camaraderie.

Occasionally a subject matter expert will finish his/her presentations early, or sometimes, the group won’t use all the time allocated to their breaks (included in the schedule to allow participants a chance to check work emails, return phone calls, or network with their corporate office contacts).  To be prepared for any free time with our April event, I developed a simple “get to know you” bingo game.  Feel free to use and edit this file, maybe adding industry or company specific traits.  You can tie those organizational bingo blocks back to you larger learning goals, or you can simply use this to game encourage conversation and get the group up and moving around- almost always a positive experience in your classroom environment.

Get To Know You Bingo

Articulate Problem Solving Interaction

Problem solving is one of the early themes in our upcoming soft skills curriculum, and one lesson includes what is now my favorite Articulate developed module!  In this example, the learner must complete a challenge as part of his/her responsibility for planning a child’s birthday party.  Anyone who has helped plan even the smallest event certainly knows how frustrating and chaotic it can be.   While it is seems like a far-fetched for a corporate learning lesson, we wanted to steer clear of office-like examples.  We expect the non-workplace scenario will help learners concentrate on problem solving principles instead of focusing on the specific problems he or she may face during work assignment.  These problem solving skills can be easily applied to any situation, work related or not!

What makes this example so exciting from a developer’s perspective?  Obviously, each grid on the interaction slide needs an answer, but this means there must also be states and variables based on correct AND incorrect answers for each grid.  This is the first time I’ve used such detailed logic in a course, but I believe it produced a learning challenge that will require participants to think rationally and exercise his/her problem solving skills.  Further, this development reminded me the possibilities in Articulate are near limitless!

Click here

to see the superhero birthday challenge.

Text heavy versus visual PowerPoint (and my favorite beach)

We recently completed our first instructor led training session of 2018, which means I spent an unfortunate amount of time in the weeks prior coaching our presenters regarding PowerPoint design.  (I’ll continue this coaching in the coming week as the participants’ feedback is distributed to the presenters/speakers.)  During these consultations, we often discuss the impact of a visually engaging presentation versus a presentation that is text heavy.

I do not mean it as a slight to students, but learning science has proven the human brain cannot read a text heavy slide while simultaneously listening to what a presenter has to say.  While there are learning activities you can facilitate for text heavy slides, in this post we’ll discuss using a visually engaging slide as a talking point. To help demonstrate my point, I designed a basic presentation with two quick topics, two slides per topic. Using an image or photo to craft a story can create emotion, or as demonstrated in the first topic of the attached slideshow, an image can better demonstrate statistics, numbers, or other data (when compared to listed data).  Above all, this improved design and presentation method can increase learners’ retention!

I’d like to elaborate this idea using the second topic in the sample presentation I’ve included.  The simple way to tell a learner about my favorite beach would be to list attributes about the under developed, quiet South Carolina town.  The second option isn’t as easy- it requires a designer to think a bit more creatively, and the presenter must also be comfortable speaking on a topic without the “crutch” that a text heavy slide may provide.  (Although, shouldn’t any subject matter expert be able to speak on his/her topic with minimal guidance/cue?)

Using lovely pictures to create meaning and emotion, I could tell a learner about the small town where golf carts and bicycles are primary means of transportation.  I could detail the delicious meals served on screened patios of mom and pop restaurants, struggling ceiling fans offering some reprieve from the South Carolina heat and humidity.  I could offer stories about dolphins playing at sunset, alligators sunning on marsh banks, or egrets swooping over the water to catch his/her meal.  I could (verbally) list the animals I’ve watched fishermen and women pull in from the surf, horseshoe crab that once dotted the sand during one of my visits, or the boneyard beach.  I could even facilitate an activity where participants would learn about and then demonstrate the ability to build temporary fencing, which island volunteers construct seasonally to protect the nests of loggerhead turtles, a vulnerable species that lays eggs on the island each summer.  I could go on and on.

Unfortunately, the odds are slim that I ever get to teach my adult learners about this haven (near Charleston, SC), but I hope the ideas I’ve shared here make you think twice about how you use PowerPoint and inspire you to take a more visual approach when you begin contemplating the design of your next presentation.

Text Versus Visual Presentations