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Archives for April 2015

Visual Design Trend – Sensory Immersion

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I am a huge fan of fast food. I know that is not a popular opinion. I probably spend way too much time in these establishments. I think it is safe to say I have seen a few fast food menus in my time. I recently noticed a change in the design of these menus. They now have videos and photos of extreme close-ups of the food. Once I noticed this, I started seeing it in other places.

I have seen it in commercials, print ads, YouTube videos, and so on.

Two of the fast food menus it was very obvious in were these:

  • McDonald’s is using close ups of their burgers.

Hamburger

  • Wendy’s is also using this style

Wendys

Wendys2

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Visual Design Trend – Point of View Style

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One of the more popular styles for visual design you will find has occurred due to the increased use of mobile device phones and the emergence of the “selfie” as a common photographic style. The other innovation that has triggered this style of photography is the wearable camera. Think along the lines of a GoPro-style of camera that puts you right in the action.

Did you know that there are 93,000,000 selfies taken EVERY DAY! That’s a lot of selfies.

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Lessons in Localization Using Adobe Captivate 8

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Recently, a client asked me if I would be willing to perform the localization process on a course I had been working on for them using Adobe Captivate 8. Given that I had never been involved with this type of process, I said “of course!”

I had no idea what I was signing up to do or the challenges it presented. I don’t think I even realized how many things the localization process touched during the conversion.

This course was created in English and being translated into Spanish. The source material was built in Adobe Captivate 8.

I was NOT involved with the communication between my client and the localization vendor. I simply received direction and files from my client on what to build with the components they provided. I was solely wearing my Developer hat for this project.

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Learning Solutions – Use of Video – Steve Haskin

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My clients are starting to expect more and more videos of software demonstrations. Interestingly enough, the sales teams are also asking for videos, but of a different type. Lastly, my department is also starting to ask for marketing-style videos that introduce clients to our various services.

VIDEO IS BECOMING EXPECTED

It should be fairly obvious to most Instructional Designers and eLearning developers that video is becoming a desired content medium because our capability to deliver various types of media has become stronger and sites like YouTube become a more prevalent as a way to deliver training content. Learners like seeing faces, watching processes, and being entertained.

At Learning Solutions, this was one of the primary discussions that was happening. When should you use video? How do you create these videos? How long should these videos be? What role does “interactive video” play in your training delivery?

We can’t really ignore this medium for much longer. Development costs used to be one of the primary barriers. Another barrier was the skills needed to edit video. A third barrier might be how to deliver these videos to your customers. Most of these barriers have now been removed.

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Learning Solutions 2015 – Mastery Roadmap

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LearningSolutions logoI sat in a Learning Stage event that I wasn’t sure if it was going to be of interest or not and it ended up being something that was very simple, yet changed how I looked at a possible tool. It was about the concept of taking a person from the point of not having any experience around a skill and getting that person to a point of competency in about half the time you might normally take. They called it a Learning Mastery Roadmap.

The normal process usually involves first providing the learner with the fundamental basics. Then, you introduce the systems and processes with which they need to be familiar. Lastly, you offer activities and review the results of those activities. This design model can take a little bit of time – typically time the corporate world does not offer to learners.

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Learning Solutions 2015 – 3-D Printing and RIP/MOD/FAB – Steve Wujec

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LearningSolutionsConference logo

The Keynotes at Learning Solutions tend to be a jumpstart to your imagination. They allow you to peek into the world of the possible and see what’s coming. I find it very exciting to see what will be impacting my world in various ways over the next 3-5 years. The topic is around the RIP/MOD/FAB Maker community that is building with 3-D printing at its core.

The keynote speaker on the first day of Learning Solutions was Steve Wujec, a senior fellow at Autodesk.

Here is a video from June 2014 that is very similar to his presentation he shared with us.

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