Jackie Van Nice

It’s Punctuation Tic-Tac-Toe!

July 5, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 13 Comments

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This week’s Articulate #ELHChallenge is to come up with an interaction that helps teach punctuation.

Update: Download the Free Template!

The Idea

I wanted to make some type of game I hadn’t tried before, and tic-tac-toe seemed relatively straightforward.

Personalized Punctuation Advisors

I also wanted to use the rest of the characters I used for this emoji challenge. The idea was to have each of them embody an element of punctuation and give their own example of correct and incorrect usage. Personalized punctuation advice couched in a bit of silliness seemed engaging to me – so I went with it.

The Design

The goal was to keep it simple and easy to play with. The board is laid out in front of you so you can pick any punctuation challenge you’d like and see your progress as you go.

Your aim may be to get tic-tac-toe (three correct answers in a row) and win; but it’s equally fun to play freely. That’s why I added a “Start Over” button on the main screen – so you can quickly clear the slate and start over.

The Game Board

The Punctuation Guide

I have to say that Storyline 2 made building the whole thing a relative snap, too. It was great. It’s one slide with 35 layers and a few states (plus many pieces and parts I added) – but engineering it to give the proper result once tic-tac-toe has been achieved was really simple.

Oh – and in the feedback for each question I linked to the appropriate page on The Punctuation Guide that David Anderson used as inspiration for the challenge. Thanks for finding it and for such a great challenge, David!

Try It Out!

Ready to test your punctuation prowess? Feel free to try it out right here.

I’m on Fakecation!

July 3, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 12 Comments

Select Image to See Larger. Or Not.

It goes without saying this is David Anderson’s fault. First he leaves us bereft without a challenge this week, and a couple of weeks ago he challenged us to go on fakecation when I was too busy to play along. I’ve simply combined the two (lack of a challenge + a missed challenge) to create this beauty.

The Idea

The idea was to stick my face on top of someone else’s exciting photo.

The Process

In Fireworks I carved a hole in the photo where the real skydiver’s face used to be, then I put mine in its place. It’s franken-photo 101.

Enjoy! Or Not!

You can see the giant version here, but I think you’re way better off getting out there to enjoy your own real vacation. Have a safe and happy holiday!

Buttoned-Down Design (+Free Storyline File!)

June 26, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 11 Comments

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This week’s challenge is to create some cool button styles. My goal was to keep it quick and do something I haven’t done before. Not hard since I usually give my buttons short shrift.

The Idea

I simply wanted to see if I could figure out how to make something like David Anderson’s cool button example.

So I Did a Version Starting In PowerPoint…

Since it looked to me like cutout shapes were involved, I started in PowerPoint to create them, then essentially animated them in Storyline.

They were fine, but I wasn’t thrilled because they weren’t buttons you could easily copy, paste, and edit.

Then Kortenbosch Shared a Little Something…

Once Jeff Kortenbosch posted his button challenge entry, along with a fabulous how-to video, I decided to see if I could make better buttony buttons like he did – natively in Storyline.

Turns out I could. Thank you, Jeff!

Select Image to Launch Demo

Check ‘Em Out!

So that’s what happened. If you’d like to see my result – version 2! – you can see them right here!

Download The Free File!

If you’d like to use my updated Storyline buttons, feel free to grab the customizable file. The download page is right here.

Storyline 1 to 2: Passport Makeover Edition

June 24, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 13 Comments

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I was always fond of this little passport how-to I did in Storyline 1, but when Articulate was kind enough to feature it on their E-Learning Examples page recently and people seemed to like it – it got me thinking about how I could update it using Storyline 2’s great features.

Navigation: Before & After

Before: A Tab-Based Layout

After: A Paris-Bound Jet Guides You

One of my favorite features in Storyline 2 is the slider for its ease of use and power to deliver a lot of information in a compact way.

I knew it would be perfect to get the entire application on one screen where the user could see everything from a high-level overview to a mid-level peek to detailed animations showing how to fill it out – simply by sliding the Paris-bound jet down the runway.

The thing is, you could still create this basic design in Storyline 1 (using this layout for a more compact presentation and navigating via clicking or tapping) – but there’s something about the slider that makes things like this easier to ideate, create, and (on the learner end) use.

Updated Animations

John Hancock Would Be Proud of the Signature Animation

The other feature-based update I made was to the animations. In the original I relied on a fade animation to bring in handwriting and typing, but being able to use the new built-in wipe animation improved the look and feel quite a bit, so I was happy about that.

See the Jet-On-the-Runway Slider!

Here’s the updated jet-fueled slider demo, and here’s the original demo for comparison. Enjoy – and bon voyage!

How to Go Full-Screen & Lose the Player in Storyline

June 7, 2015 By Jackie Van Nice 10 Comments

This timeline looks like it's floating; just on a black background.

This timeline looks like it’s floating in space.

She doesn't need a frame or player. Do you?

She doesn’t need a frame or a player. Do you?

I love making e-learning look like it’s floating in space without the traditional box-like appearance or standard player, and I guess I’m not alone since I get a lot of questions about how to do it.

This entire interaction is a wheel that seems to spin in space: No player, no frame.

Going Full-Screen

Going full-screen is simple. In Storyline go to Player > Other > Player Size > select “Scale player to fill browser window”. For the Browser Size option select “Display at user’s current browser size”. To get that wide-screen effect I choose Design > Story Size: 16:9.

Important tip about going full-screen: Be sure your content still looks great at full screen. No one wants to see pixelated, stretched, or otherwise tormented images. If you’re going to do it, plan your images accordingly.

This game seems to float because the blue page background matches the slide background.

Losing the Player

To lose the player, the bottom line is you’re going to turn off the player features and either make all of your player elements the same color as your page background or make them transparent. This is what I do:

Player > Features > deselect everything. Player > Colors & Effects > Page Background: I choose the same color as my slide background. Player > Colors & Effects > Color Scheme > Show Advanced Color Editing > Edit Item > Base: I make each of these elements 100% transparent. If you have other player elements (menus, buttons, etc.) that you want to blend in, change their colors or make them transparent using this same menu.

Need More Details?

If you’d like to know more about making your player disappear check out Articulate’s instructions for using a chromeless player. Then set your e-learning free!