Brian is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a BA in English. Since 1999 he has been writing, photographing and designing for both digital and print media. Brian loves traveling and writing about his adventures and he lived in Prague, Czech Republic for a year. In 2001 Brian joined the KMi team as Lead Designer. In addition to 3D, web, graphic and logo design Brian is a Flash designer who specializes in instructional illustration, diagramming and animation.

The Graphics for Learning blog will address design and graphical considerations for those seeking custom content development as well as offer tips, techniques and solutions for designers.

Check out Brian's Photography/Travel blog.

When I was growing up in the 19080s I recall a new type of book taking my elementary by storm -  choose your own adventure books. Genius! What better way to make reading a little more exciting to attention deficient youngsters only interested in flicking mud with sticks (at least that's what I was doing in 3rd grade). While not necessarily the most enlightening of literature these books asked the reader to abandon the monotony of repetitive page turning. Take left hand, grab bottom right page corner, pull to bottom left page corner and repeat.

As custom content developers we are always looking for ways to blow up what's expected of online training. Possibly subconsciously borrowing from my experience in grade school I've asked, why must there only be a table of contents and next and back arrows. Of course sometimes linear learning is unavoidable and the possibility for creative navigation is more challenging, but why not try and create the most engaging experience possible?

In a recent employee policy course that we've been developing we've done just that. After a brief animated introduction the screen is then divided into a number sections, each representing individual policies, their size based on their importance.



Once a policy is selected users are presented with click-able silhouettes of several characters. Each has a story to tell about their experiences with the respective policy. These are interactive videos where the user will either help the character make the right decision or help them see the err of their way. At any point the navigation options are minimal though the control is total. There is a play/pause button, the option to choose a different character or choose a different policy by returning to the divided policy selection page. With only the inclusion of a closed captioning button there are no other means of navigation. The interaction is more than intuitive and engaging and almost nothing resembles any traditional means.

Very often, companies making the step to internally harnessing the awesome power of knowledge management are new to the process. Sometimes, these new duties fall on the shoulders of already busy individuals and other times those in charge struggle to get the support they need from other participating departments. While it is important to enlist the support of all beneficiaries, sometimes the chain of contributors becomes so convoluted that it is no longer manageable.

This can be a nightmare for a custom content development team. We've seen chains of command so long that entire projects stall-out. Review processes get passed along from individual to individual and from department to department until it's unclear who has the ball or even what court it's in. From a designer's standpoint, halting production not only delay's deadlines, but runs the great risk of inconsistency and redundancy. In the past, we've seen reviews and evaluations of scripts come in months after a project is completed and in use in the field. Obviously, this poses a great problem for those who have already received certification in a course.

While lack of clear project leads can stall out production, too many can be equally disruptive. If two or more coordinators are communicating directly with our content developers without properly communicating among each other then disaster is bound to happen. The last thing we want to have is surprised or confused clients. An example of this communication breakdown is when a project coordinator gives unchecked authority to subject matter experts. While the details of a project are accurate, at times the larger goals of courseware are lost and the final product falls short of original expectations. Too, correcting miscommunications can drastically delay completion dates and add great expense.

Before any work commences on a project it is invaluable to our design team to have firm project liaisons with clearly defined duties and to establish other contributing parties who understand what is expected from them.

Imagine being in a foreign country where you don't speak the language, for instance, Paris, France. You're lifelong dream has been to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and the only thing standing in your way is successfully obtaining a metro ticket that will get you to the museum from your hotel. Standing at the station kiosk, your heart begins to race and your palms dampen as you frantically attempt to decipher the foreign phrases. Well, the Paris Transit Authority understands these potential complications and has set up a system of translated instructions and universal icons to guide foreigners through the ticket buying process. Without proper guidance it would be nearly impossible to know how to properly interact with the computer, possibly even for native French speakers.

Similarly, we instructional designers need to develop clear, concise and intuitive instructions for effectively navigating through a course module. For instance, in our latest simulation of a medical procedure the users will perform a number of interactions with the module that range from picking up objects with a virtual hand, to dragging syringe plungers to specific volumes and to filling-out checklists and signing forms. These interactions will require specific mouse movement, clicking and holding left mouse functions and utilizing key strokes on their keyboards. If we don't effectively make the desired interactions logical and clearly presented, then the user will be learning how to operate the module rather than how to perform the medical procedure - and that would be a colossal failure on our part.

Our solution with this simulation was to develop a series of icons that denote specific interaction types that are intuitive enough not to necessarily require a key to understand (though a key will be provided for those who may need clarification). In addition, simple questions and scenarios are presented to the user that will lead them to choose the proper interaction to perform next. If the user can perform an action in the module without having to ask "how?" then we have succeeded.

In June I wrote a post on the use of high dynamic range or HDR photography titled Tools, Tips and Techniques of Our Trade: HDR Photography. It turns out the HDR technique has really gained ground in popularity and more and more enthusiasts are venturing into the algorithmic process. As I too hone my skills and refine my own photographic style I've noticed a few trends forming in the community.

As we know HDR can yield some dramatic results and often viewers of my photos will be wowed and not truly understand what makes the photo appear so, let's say, vibrant. But recently I've noticed more folks are at least aware of HDR and ask "Oh, is that HDR?" Interestingly, I was kind of surprised that I've had trouble answering that question. Many think HDR simply requires tossing multiple exposures into to a program, clicking a button and having a beautifully optimized HDR photo spit out the other end. This is far from reality. Over the last year or so I've developed my own process for post-processing photos which utilizes a number of programs and treatments all depending on the requirements of each individual photo. An HDR program is just another "tool" I often use to obtain the final result I'm looking to achieve. Never will one of my photos be a raw HDR product. When I use HDR, I always mix and mask the HDR generated with one or all of the original exposures in Photoshop. After using any number of other tools such as noise reduction, sharpening, color correction, and exposure adjustment the final photo will only contain a fraction of the HDR produced by the HDR program. Of course, depending on the specific photo, a shot could be 80% HDR or 10%.

And this is true for all of our favorite "HDR photographers." No great HDR was produced solely using the raw HDR photo generated by an HDR program. They too have all been mixed with the original exposures. Every photographer has their own unique style and process to achieve their desired results. So now when someone asks if a particular photo of mine is HDR I reply with an estimated percentage. Mostly this unexpected answer produces a reaction of confusion and sometimes annoyance but is much more accurate than a simple yes or no.

Below are a couple of my photos that use HDR. Also you can see more at my blog at http://www.bfhstudios.com/blog.

Orton Hall foyer, The Ohio State University. 3 exposure 75% HDR.



El Castillo, Chichen Itza, Mexico. 3 exposure 40% HDR.

Efficiently managing projects from the beginning is crucial to efficiency, consistency and assuring that we develop the best end product possible. Since some of our projects are quite large, responsibilities are divided up among our design team to be worked on simultaneously. While it may be an obvious practice, using common graphics libraries is an invaluable practice that can save precious time.

In an ideal world, we would create all the necessary graphics for a project before work is even started. But that is almost nearly impossible. We inevitably will need to add and alter graphics along the way. Therefore, we create a single library that contains all of the graphics for the project. Each graphic is saved as a symbol. At any time during the course of the development phase, when we add or change a symbol it will be updated at every instance along the project pipeline. 

For example, we had built a course that often referred to a very specific, step-by-step procedure at many places throughout the module. After the course was finished, the client had made a very important change to this standard operating procedure. Since we had created a graphic symbol of this procedure, we were able to make the change to the symbol in the common library and simply republish the course. We were able to save valuable time and ensure accuracy by not having to go back through the course and manually find and change every instance of that graphic.

Below is an example of an ever-expanding library of characters for an on-going project.

Establishing a strong, consistent design style is imperative for any project. The last thing we want are for our custom content development projects is to feel pieced together from multiple sources and developed by multiple designers who aren't on the same page. All of this is even more crucial for clients of ours who have on-going coursework lasting years and even decades.

For example, a series of supply chain courses for one of our oldest clients called for an infinite number of object-oriented illustrations. New drawings would need to be developed throughout the duration of the project and be used in accordance with and interchangeably with all previous illustrations. We knew that a specific, cohesive design style was especially critical to the project. Our solution was to develop, from the very beginning, a style using isometric projection. Let's look a little closer at what this means and why it is so useful.

Isometric projection is the method of graphical representation where the three coordinate axes appear equally foreshortened. There is no distortion of perspective as we experience with our own eyes. Objects far away appear just as large as objects up close and opposite sides are perfectly parallel. Let's look at the guidelines we use to instruct our custom content designers.