It’s not funny!
Don’t lose your money!
Do you have what it takes to keep your money safe from scammers?
This award-winning, scenario-based eLearning experience is a conceptual project designed to help ordinary Aussies build decision-making skills about providing personal and financial information in an environment with no risk of financial loss or embarrassment.
Audience: Older Aussies who have a mobile phone.
Responsibilities: Instructional design (action mapping, storyboarding, mockups, prototype, full build), visual design, audio narration, character animation.
Tools Used: Articulate Storyline 360, Vyond, Figma, Audacity, MindMeister, Google Docs.
The Problem
Have you fallen victim to an online scam? Do you know someone who has? Despite the efforts of educational programs and most people knowing that scams exist, the number of scam victims is increasing.
There has been an increase in the number of people getting scammed via phone, text, or email with statistics showing that women over the age of 65 are most likely to fall victim to scams. After conducting research, I was able to identify that there is a general lack of knowledge and skill in dealing with scams.
The Solution
Image: Screenshot of eLearning experience showing that questions are based on real-life scams.
A self-paced, story-driven eLearning product is the best solution for the following reasons:
The learners are geographically dispersed. Learners can access the eLearning experience from an inner-city retirement village to an outback station.
Learners can engage with the content at any time, and from the privacy and comfort of their own home.
The eLearning experience can reach an infinite number of learners; it is not limited to people physically present for the training.
Learners can build their knowledge and decision-making skills in a low-stakes environment with no risk of financial loss or embarrassment.
Learners can practice decision making; going through real life scenarios using the exact device on which the scammers contact them.
New scams are appearing all the time, as scammers try different techniques. An eLearning activity can quickly be updated and deployed so that learners can practise making decisions based on the most recent scams.
My Process
I completed this project using the ADDIE model. For the Analysis phase, I looked at the statistics reported by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and interviewed victims of scams and their family members. With this information, I was able to identify the main areas of concern, and create an action map and text-based storyboard.
Then came the Design phase. Once my storyboard was approved, I started designing the wireframes and high-fidelity mockups in Figma and Vyond. It was in this phase that the scenes and characters for this scenario-based eLearning project started to come to life.
From there, it was a quick transition to the Development phase, where I developed the interactive prototype in Articulate Storyline 360. Based on feedback from learners about the user experience and user interface, I made iterations to the prototype and then fully developed the project.
The Implementation phase consisted of sharing the eLearning project with learners.
Consultation and constant Evaluation was the key to success of this project. When the eLearning experience was developed, I asked victims of scams and their families as well as professional instruction designers to provide feedback so that I could improve the experience and ensure it was not only easy to navigate but also effective in its aim.
Action Map
Image: Action Map with goal at the head, and the specific observable actions a person can take in each high-risk situation.
During the Analysis phase I used the Action Mapping process designed by Cathy Moore, whereby I identified all the actions needed to be undertaken to achieve the goal of “less people getting scammed”. I asked myself, “If I could observe my 83 year old mother being scammed, what would I see her doing?” and, “What does she need to do when faced with a scam?”
I was able to break down the individual actions a person could take to avoid getting scammed via text message, unsolicited calls, and malware. From there I could pinpoint the high priority actions that would be the most effective in avoiding these scams, such as not clicking on a link in a text message, and hanging up on an unsolicited caller requesting personal information.
Text-based Storyboard
I created a text-based storyboard as a blueprint for the project. The concept was to draw the learner into the experience through storytelling, and ‘choose your own adventure’ scenarios. The story centres around one main character, who is faced with choices about what they should do in each scenario.
As with life, every decision has a consequence, and so when the learner selects the correct choice, they are shown a positive consequence and can progress to the next part of the story. If the incorrect option is chosen, the character is faced with the negative consequences and a ‘try again’ button, which leads the learner back to the original question. When the learner is faced with decisions, they can seek help from the mentor character who can guide them to make wise choices.
Image: Storyboard illustrating the question prompts, visual and programming notes.
Visual Mockups
Image: Style Guide
I created visual mockups in Figma as it is much quicker and easier to iterate design elements in Figma than Articulate Storyline.
I made sure that my style guide and colour scheme were simple so that they would not clash with the various scenes, characters and assets in Vyond. The title heading is fun and ‘cartoon style’ to hint at the animated style of the eLearning interaction. I chose the main body text in a font that would be very easy to read to ensure that learners had a positive user experience.
From there, I started designing scenes and characters in Vyond as I knew that the story-based experience was going to rely heavily on animation. I edited all the assets and scenes in Vyond to align with the style guide.
From this…..
Image: Vyond original templates and assets.
to this…..
Image: Vyond templates and assets colour matched.
I also worked with both third person and first person perspectives to draw the learner into the experience.
Video: Section of eLearning question with consequence showing both third and first person perspectives.
I designed wireframes to help with the alignment and layout of the question slides, and then used these as inspiration for the final mockups.
Images: Wireframe for question slide and the final mockup of question slide.
After gathering feedback from professional instructional designers I was able to iterate and improve on the design and layout of the slides. As I built each slide, and experimented with alignment, design, colours and placement, the design process became more and more exciting as I could see the story starting to unfold.
Image: Mockup slide of character talking on the telephone to her bank.
Interactive Prototype
I then used Articulate Storyline 360, Vyond and Audacity to develop an interactive prototype in order to collect feedback on the user experience and user interface.
In Vyond, I focussed on drawing the learner into the story with characters’ emotions, and maintaining their attention by artfully adding camera movement and transitioning scenes to move the story along in a short timeframe. As character dialogue plays a significant role in these animations, I also ensured that the audio and character movement aligned.
In Storyline, I incorporated the Vyond videos in order to make the experience interactive.
Images: Screenshots of working process in Vyond and Articulate.
Getting feedback about this prototype was essential in being able to design an eLearning experience that was not only interesting, but also functional and accessible. Based on this feedback, I made a number of changes to the prototype, such as adding an option for learners to read speech bubbles or listen to the audio only.
Full Development
After collecting and applying feedback from the prototype, I developed the final product using Articulate Storyline 360. The final product incorporates the two streams (audio on or speech bubbles on).
Favourite features:
Animations: I was able to draw the learner into the experience with the use of emotions in the characters and strong storytelling in Vyond. The character in the eLearning module is middle-aged with red hair, and despite the obvious physical differences between the character on the screen and my grey-haired mother, I knew I was on the right track during the prototype phase when my mum pointed to the main character and said, “That’s me, isn't it?” She had been drawn into the story, and identified with the character and the difficult choices she is faced with despite their obvious physical differences.
Character Dialogue: This scenario-based eLearning experience relies heavily on character dialogue to move the story along. I decided early on to engage a professional voice actor and his team to record most of the audio for the project.
Audio: I wanted to add moments of delight when learners made the correct choice, but this did not reflect real life. Instead, I chose to apply audio such as buzzing when the character received a phone call. The idea of the phone buzzing continuing until the learner chooses to either answer the call or decline the call elevates a sense of urgency and reflects the stress experienced in a real-life scam situation.
Results and Takeaways
Although this is a conceptual project, I shared it with many older Australian who had been victims of scams, the wider Instructional Designer community, and the digital learning group at the local Community Resource Centre and it received a lot of positive feedback.
What people have been saying about this eLearning experience:
Awesome!
It’s given me confidence to know what to do next time.
I want to know what happens next….I’m totally invested in the character.
I like the option to read, I prefer reading and I can go at my own pace.
I love the characters, and how you represent different groups.
This project is also featured on Devlin Peck's YouTube channel. Watch the video where Kristin Dominguez talks about how the project's memorable and engaging experience is achieved through my storytelling and use of Vyond to show high-risk consequences in a low-risk setting.
As featured on:
