The Process

Because this was my very first Articulate Storyline project, I needed to incorporate testing models into the development interface to see the programming play out in real time. As a result, each button has eight states, each color-coded to match all potential random-number assignments:

First click, Second click, Third click, First and Second click, First and Third click,
First and Second and Third click, Second and Third click, No click.

Programming problems arose here because I did not yet know the programming language (again — my first project). However, I knew what I wanted the programming to do, so I paused the Storyline programming and wrote a Functionality List in Microsoft Word (similar to above). This served as a coding research map upon returning to Storyline to create control variables and trigger responses for buttons and scoring components. When further problems arose, I work-shopped my project on the Devlin Peck bootcamp to get experienced guidance from mentors Nicole Stephens and Devlin Peck. They noted that several variables were arranged incorrectly and guided my corrections until I was able to take the remaining coding challenges to completion.

Results and Takeaways

From the beginning, this endeavor was out of my league. That's why I agreed to take it on: I wanted to be challenged. When we recognize our ignorance, we begin to learn. Then we're ready to explore and reimagine new possibilities. Attempting to solve everything in one session proved to be the most difficult challenge. Instead, I had to work through challenges one at a time. To do so effectively, I needed to take a break from the design and development stages and return to the analysis stage, where I could devote more time to establishing a coding plan.

The coding plan functioned as an interactive storyboard that ran behind the scenes of a largely static UX interface. It is the brain we never see unless we interact with it. There are no flashy graphics to distract users from the function. The sexiest part of this project are the functions operating below the surface. Maybe there is a life correlation there?

Putting in the extra effort to create eight states for each button aided my learning process for the final project. However, they played a key role in learning the advanced coding for this project and helped streamline the troubleshooting process with my mentors.

I am proud of this little project. Although there are rare opportunities to use Storyline for such complex solutions, the working processes I discovered will serve to properly prepare and streamline future project along the way.