New Employee Onboarding
Emma's Sit & Stay is a dog walking and training company based on the Mornington Peninsula, that offers in-house pet sitting services. They provide professional and reliable care for your furry family members while you're away. Their services include tailored dog walks, behavior training, and safe in-house pet sitting.
Overview
Audience: New Contractors to Emma’s Sit & Stay
Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Virtual Design, Compliance/Safety Focus
Tools Used: Articulate Rise 360, Adobe Suite, Microsoft Office Suite
Emma’s Sit & Stay noticed that their new contractors were not retaining all of the important information in their New Contractor Handbook. This raised the concern of potential costly consequences, including the safety of the contractors, pet enjoyment, and loss of customer faith.
After analyzing the performance problem, we confirmed that the contractors had the required skills and knowledge required to excel in their roles, but needed a more flexible and diverse approach to their training. We proposed a more interactive eLearning experience where the new contractors could revisit the training at any time, via mobile phone, computer, or tablet.
Our goal was to improve customer satisfaction and reduce the risk to contractor and pet safety by having the training have a strong focus on communication, expectations of the business and the clients, and proactive actions to avoid injury. This helps the learner connect their choices with real-world consequences.
The client accepted my proposal and we proceeded with the project.
Process
Action Mapping
We consulted the owner of the business as my subject matter expert (SME) to develop the action map and establish the overall goal for this project. We decided to measure progress by monitoring the customer satisfaction survey data. We then identified the actions required to assist contractors to exceed in their role and reduce risks to safety.
Visual Mockups
Once the action mapping was revised and approved, we began creating visual mockups for the scenario in Adobe XD & Articulate 360. Adobe XD allowed me to experiment with visual elements and layouts in order to settle on something that felt polished and immersive. Articulate 360 allowed me to show examples and tools available to us to use.
We maintained a consistent visual style for each element, from the background to the characters. We also created a custom color palette based on my title slide’s background illustration and got to work on editing each asset to match the color scheme using Affinity Designer, a vector editing software.
Interactive Prototype
We used Articulate Rise 360 to create an interactive prototype using the visual mockups and storyboard to establish the scenario’s programming. The prototype consisted of the title screen, Acknowledgment of Country, company history, and the first question’s correct and incorrect consequences.
We incorporated smooth fading transitions and crisp animations for each prompt and slide element to maintain narrative immersion. We also demonstrated the use of Emma’s Sit & Stay social media within the training (images, reels, stories).
With the basic framework for the rest of the project established, we shared the prototype seeking feedback on the look, feel, and overall experience of the scenario. The reception was positive and we made minor adjustments to tighten the transition times. We moved on to the full development once both the client and we were satisfied.
Full Development
The full development of the scenario in Articulate Rise 360 was straightforward and efficient now that all elements had been created and a programming framework for each consequence was established.
Results and Takeaways
We shared the completed project with my network online and were overwhelmed by the positive reception and praise received. Viewers commented on its polished feel while highlighting its immersive and engaging dialogue.
There are several directions I would love to take this concept project and improvements I would make with more time and resources:
Add Audio Elements: We would add audio elements to include background ambient noise in the dog park during the dress code lesson and voice-acting for the mentor. We believe this experience’s strengths are its immersion and these audio elements would only heighten that.
Include more scenario-based training: the potential to expand this training into Scenario-Based training is grand. Introducing a multitude of training and house-sitting scenarios would help cement the learnings from this training. For example, a scenario on vacating a property, showing a room, and identifying what has to be done before the contractor leaves.
Include a Video Message from the owner: Although we were able to get a written ‘Welcome’ statement from the owner of Emma’s Sit & Stay we would like to replace that with a short video of the owner reading the Welcome statement. We feel this would help develop a stronger relationship between contractors and the business.
This project provided me with the opportunity to work with an SME, collaborate with peers, integrate feedback, and learn new programs and tools. I have grown significantly as an instructional designer and eLearning developer, but most importantly, I had a blast pushing myself creatively.