PLAY BREAKTHROUGH BOARD
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3 Animations Styles Available
Contemporary
The contemporary style has a clean, modern look. It is perfect for customer-facing interactive videos as well as employee training. A wide range of expressions, actions, and background are available. Settings, characters and props can be customized with your brand colors.
Business Friendly
Business-friendly characters engage the audience with humor, emotion, and a wide range of actions. This unique style is especially well-suited for internal employee training. Settings, characters, and props can be customized with your brand colors.
Whiteboard
The Whiteboard style includes fast hand-drawn animation. This style is best for interactive videos where a minimal color palette is needed. It allows the audience to focus on information and concepts. Specific elements can be customized with your brand colors.
Executive Summary
Business Problem: The Association for Talent Development (ATD) is a global training and development organization. The business problem was that they needed an effective way to introduce a new Orientation Dashboard to local ATD Chapter Leaders.
The Solution: After interviewing several ATD Chapter leaders to determine the business needs, I created an animated interactive video called The Breakthrough Board. As ATD Chapter leaders play through the video, they make decisions that help them effectively use the Orientation Dashboard with their own people.
Chapter leaders are presented with choices similar to decisions they need to make on the job, and get the chance to learn from their mistakes. At the end of the interactive video, they gain access to the real Orientation Dashboard so they can put their learning into action.
The Breakthrough Board interactive video and the Orientation Dashboard have now been made available to all ATD Chapter leaders. ATD Orange County received a Sharing our Success (SOS) award for this project, and was subsequently recognized as Chapter of the Month by ATD National.
Software Platforms Used: Articulate Storyline 360 and Vyond
Video Development Details
My clients say it’s easy to work with me, because I do all the heavy lifting:
First, I ask some questions to clarify the business problem using a powerful technique called action mapping
Next, I write a script and create a prototype for your approval
Then, I create your video in the style you selected (Animated Vyond, Storyline, Custom Illustrated or Live Video)
But for those of you who are curious, here’s a “behind the scenes” look at how I work my magic.
BUSINESS ANALYSIS:
First, I spoke with ATD representatives to analyze the business need. This helped me determine key decisions, consequences of good and poor choices, and the overall story arc. I developed an action map to show how the decisions would help achieve the intended business goal.
The action map helped us identify which decisions to include in the interactive video.
As I analyzed the business problem, I realized it went beyond “introduce the orientation dashboard”. The real issue was that ATD Chapter Leaders need to be persuaded to use the dashboard effectively. These leaders are busy people who might not initially understand the benefits the orientation could provide. Further analysis uncovered a series of observable actions we wanted them to take: (1) Visit the orientation dashboard (2) Review the orientation modules thoroughly (3) Create a supplemental training document (4) Launch orientation via a kickoff meeting.
ACTION MAP (EXCERPT)
SCRIPT (CLIENT REVIEW AND SIGN-OFF):
Next, I wrote a script that included the setup, inciting incident, four decisions (based on the action map), the ending, and an epilogue.
I used storytelling techniques such as the hero’s journey, narrative arc, character development, and humor to boost audience engagement.
We decided to intentionally limit the number of decisions so the video would not be too long. Since ATD Chapter Leaders have busy schedules, we wanted to keep the video play time to around five minutes. For simplicity we limited each choice screen to two decisions.
For each decision, I presented a good and poor choice that led to associated consequences. Instead of using alternate endings, I used the “mastery loop” technique, so the player could easily recover from mistakes.
Key ATD Chapter leaders (Client Subject Matter Experts) reviewed the script and provided final approval.
Script review and sign-off was very important, because all audio recording and animation depend on this finalized script. After the script was finalized and signed-off by the Client SMEs, I continued to the next phase (prototype development).
PROTOTYPE (CLIENT REVIEW AND SIGN-OFF)
Next, I created a prototype with characters and background images to demonstrate the project’s look and feel.
I incorporated the ATD brand colors into the graphics for consistent messaging. The resulting prototype included screen shots, short videos, and an interactive demo. I also provided sample voice-over narration (although I sometimes hire other professional voice-over artists, in this case, I recorded the narration myself).
Key ATD Chapter leaders reviewed the prototype and provided their final approval.
Prototype sign-off was an important step. This is when we finalized the graphic style to be used in this project (Vyond Contemporary, Business-Friendly, or Whiteboard). We also identified how brand colors would be incorporated, determined main character design, voice-over selection, and any custom graphic elements.
After the audio/visual prototype was signed -off by the Client SMEs, I continue to the next phase (animation and interactivity development).
ANIMATION, GAMIFICATION, AND INTERACTIVITY:
Next, I created animated videos to accompany the narration. These videos include character expression changes, movement, customized backgrounds, and props. For interactivity, I added decision screens with clickable buttons and meaningful consequences for each decision. I used a ticking timer to add a bit of fun pressure to each decision. At the end of the story, the call to action encouraged people to visit the orientation dashboard. On the final screen, people are also invited to play again.
I added gamified elements to boost engagement. The buttons play certain sounds depending on the selected choice. I display a “reward” heart when they answer right the first time. The character also smiles more broadly when correct answers are selected. I included a gamified scoring system that displays the number of questions they got right on their first attempt. The scoring was added for fun and engagement, since we did not need to officially track player results for this project. (However if desired, we could have tracked their score in an LMS).
DECISION SCREEN ANIMATION
ANIMATED ZOOM MEETING
FULL DEVELOPMENT, TESTING, AND REVIEW:
Then I developed the full interactive video using Vyond and Storyline 360. The final product includes four decision points and takes about 5 minutes to play. I tested the interactive video thoroughly with users, incorporated their feedback, then sent the video to the Client SMEs for review.
When it was ready, we launched the video on the orientation dashboard landing page. We also distributed the video via email, LinkedIn, and YouTube. As word about this video spread, The Breakthrough Board received outstanding reviews from ATD Chapter leaders, ATD National leaders, and the business community. Here are a few examples:
"What a wonderful resource and story to share! You really captured the challenges of onboarding new board members. Well done!"
Tiffany Prince, Leadership Consultant and Strategist | Former National Advisor for Chapters (ATD)
“This is FANTASTIC! Thank you for creating this interactive video. I'm inspired & literally cheered when they achieved chapter of the month! I'm standing taller that I earned 4/4 too 😄”
Bridget Randall, President ATD San Diego Chapter
“This made new board member orientation so much easier. In previous years, onboarding was a challenge. Not this year! We are all up to speed at the beginning of the year and ready to go. Thank you, Kimberly!”
Gillian Wilson, President ATD Orange County Chapter
ANIMATED INTERACTIVE VIDEO
PROJECT RESULTS:
ATD Orange County submitted the The Breakthrough Board interactive video along with the Orientation Dashboard to ATD National as a Sharing our Success (SOS) submission.
Later, ATD-Orange County received a Sharing our Success (SOS) award for this project, and subsequently were recognized as Chapter of the Month by ATD National.
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