Key Elements for eLearning Storyboard Design

Instructional Designer Tips For Custom eLearning Design

Much like a training needs assessment helps to set the plan in motion for a new corporate training and development initiative, a storyboard lays the foundation for an effective online professional development program.

Both are completed by an instructional design consultant here at TrainingFolks and both include several best practices that drive results for our clients.

If the training needs assessment identifies eLearning as the best modality to close the learning gap experienced in your organization then the instructional designer will build out a visual storyboard to help eLearning developers to bring the training modules to life.

Download this infographic outlining 9 best practices for eLearning storyboard design. Sharing this with your internal instructional design team or addressing it when working through the project details with your contract instructional designer are both ways to use this tool to help with your upcoming eLearning program.

Things that your instructional designer will consider cover off key elements including:

1. Style
2. Navigation
3. Content Narration
4. Graphic Design Requirements
5. Developer Notes
6. Visuals, Style and Navigation
7. WCAG Compliance

The old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words” holds true in storyboarding. The visuals should contain all the graphical elements – size, color samples, font, font color, backgrounds, navigation style, images, drawings, text placement and anything else to help them visualize the story.

Content:

The content component of a storyboarding process should provide the subject matter expert with the opportunity to see exactly what the message is going to be and how it is going to be presented. This is their opportunity to review the content and work with you to make any edits before the development begins.

Narration:

If your course includes voice-over-talent or closed captions, including narration in your storyboard, is important for both the subject matter experts and the developers. You need approval from the subject matter experts of what the narrations says. The developers and the instructional design consultant should ensure the narration works with the on-screen elements.

Graphic Design Requirements:

Sometimes graphics and images are provided to you by the client, sometimes custom graphics need to be created. It is important to show what is required in the storyboard. This can include requesting a graphic treatment like re-coloring images or asking a graphic designer to build a custom navigation panel. The level of work will vary and that needs to be demonstrated in your storyboard.

Developer Notes:

These instructions should explain to the client and subject matter experts how a page will work and feel. The notes should include an explanation of the navigation, buttons, and other interactions that will be built into your course.

Storyboards are a critical tool for effective instructional design consultants.  They are also a critical part to creating the right instructional materials that will come from your online courses. They communicate to your clients, subject matter experts, and approvers of all the details included in the final deliverable. Storyboards relay the message visually and through text to illustrate all the information the parties need to know. This lifts a vision from the page and brings it to life on the learner’s screen.

WCAG Compliance:

Another key consideration is the web content accessibility guidelines. These cover off requirements that address how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. If you’re an organization with over 50 employees, then this is something your designer and developer will work together on to ensure compliance.

While the first step is identifying learning objectives and the need for a good eLearning training program, the challenge for many learning departments is a lack of qualified resources. Finding the right instructional designer, eLearning developer, technical writer or instructional technologist with the time to put into the project can be difficult.

Working with an external corporate training services partner like TrianingFolks can be the answer. 

Download your free eBook entitled 5 Tips for Selecting the Ideal Instructional Design Company to help address key reasons to work with an external instructional design services company.

Here are just a few reasons why a contract Instructional Designer is a smart, cost-effective choice for your eLearning needs.

Deep industry knowledge – A training company partner will know your organization and industry and select a consultant who is an expert in adult learning design in your field. This not only reduces or eliminates ramp-up time, it decreases the amount of time your internal subject matter experts need to spend on the project.

Project management – A senior consultant is skilled at project management. They can take on the entire project, setting the schedule and coordinating with key stakeholders for review and sign-off at critical points in the development process, freeing up your L&D team to continue to work on their own projects

In addition to these exceptional skills hiring the right contract Instructional Designer also enables you and your team to focus on other priorities requiring your attention, leaving the project at hand to an expert that can dedicate 100% of their efforts to providing the optimal result. 

Find out more about our training professionals and other corporate learning solutions today.