Interactive Story

How do you approach the reality of having to deal with difficult people in the workplace? What if that reality interferes with your performance for the company? I developed this interactive story project to take a closer look at working relationships. This story invites to search within, in order to grasp the whole picture.

Audience: Human resource leaders

Responsibilities: Instructional design, research, scripting, interaction and visual design, eLearning development and user experience

Tools: Articulate Storyline 360, Adobe, Canva, Google doc

A workplace team can function productively when they have a welcoming and collaborative approach. When there is a toxic environment, there is a problem. This project was created to address this problem. I researched this topic by reading articles from well-acclaimed relationship researcher experts. In addition, I spoke to company leaders about the challenges and consequences of having these problems. With so many behavioral motives, I narrowed it down to perception and vulnerability. I continued my research in relationships to analyze further.

In the end, I chose personal perception as the ultimate obstacle. This was done by creating an interactive story that hooks the viewer with fun and engaging dialogue. This creative approach of storytelling addresses the actions you need to do and learn in order to reach the desired outcome.

I created a text-based storyboard for this project where the story is tailored to the choices you make. The persona I developed is Lucy, "the good girl" or so it seems. Lucy is a dedicated person who goes above and beyond to be the finest employee in her area.

Lucy faces certain challenges in her workplace when the ideal job assignment is given to a new employee, Sadie "the antagonist" or is she? Lucy will go through a series of situations that will test her character. Will Lucy think outside of herself, or will she get driven to sudden bad choice of judgements?

The visual design for this project gives it a realistic view. The backgrounds have several locations such as the coffee room, the desk's area office and the conference room. I made sure the setting was appropriate by carefully choosing a neutral background that quickly gave the setting without overwhelming the learner with too much information. The characters change dynamically with the conversations. This added some delight and curiosity to the experience.

This interactive prototype was created using Articulate Storyline 360. By using the visual mockups and text-based storyboard for the first scene, I was able to iterate for the next scenes. Interactive screens were created to give the end user a better experience by allowing them to click anywhere on the screen. Furthermore, fun transitions show passing of time and easiness throughout the story. This allows the end user to live the momentum and the urgency to make real-time decisions. The dialogue section was put on the top part of the slides in order to give it a uniformed clean look. In addition, an italicized font was used when the character is having a thought process. After getting feedback from the subject matter experts (SME's) and the interactive storytelling community, several changes were made.

Full development of this project was challenging, but very rewarding. In the initial stage of the brainstorming process, my goal was to complete the whole project in one month. It was just as wanting a baby to walk right at birth, impossible. Now I understand this creation was a process, just as instructional design. The goal is to improve business performance, and what a better way to do it with an engaging story that hooks the user from the start. It provides opportunities for personal growth. Ultimately, when the end user is motivated to change their behavior, this can be key to the success of the organization as a whole. The best part is that this framework can deliver fresh experiences with new problems to solve by adjusting to varied contexts. I hope anyone that experiences the full project can take away a meaningful lesson they can apply to their life.

The product was well-received by the client and the instructional design community. Interactive storytelling has been the most insightful and engaging experience I've had. I enjoyed every minute of this adventure. From the initial state, I received feedback that was provided to improve the overall experience. An example was to incorporate complex issues that can be real in the life of the characters. This complexity gave depth and meaning to the main characters. In addition, the choice moments evolved in the process since I received suggestions to make the choices in a way the user will think twice on their decision.

If you have these kinds of workplace challenges, an interactive story can be an amazing complement to your current initiatives. I'm looking forward to talking with you about what that would entail.