Why I became a Storyline Developer
February 16, 2015
Why I became a Storyline Developer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Storyline 2
Overall Satisfaction with Articulate
I run a small e-learning business and I use this software almost exclusively to build e-learning for my clients, which include corporates, not-for-profits and the university sector. Many organisations outsource their e-learning development needs and that is what we do at Storyline Developer. We provide bespoke solutions for clients and help them bridge both their capacity and capability gaps. We also offer customised training in using the software to those clients who wish to eventually maintain or develop their own e-learning products.
- Easy-to-use and learn quickly. For any learning designer who has used PowerPoint, Articulate Storyline will be a breeze to learn. You can very quickly learn how to create a simple e-learning interaction that will run in and be tracked by an LMS, and as you become proficient, you can take it to the next level of complexity and sophistication.
- User community that is second to none. I have never been a part of such an active user community. The support and generosity with knowledge is incredible. Any help a newbie might need is just a forum post away, the e-learning heroes always provide help!
- Customer service and support. Articulate pride themselves in putting customer service and support at the forefront. Whenever I have had to contact support, the response has been not only super prompt, but also comprehensive.
- Extending the software. You can build great e-learning interactions very quickly, but if you want to take a few steps further, Storyline lets you add Javascript to produce some really unique interactivity.
- States, layers and variables. Using a combination of states, variables and layers allows a developer to build almost anything, like games, branched learning and more.
- Articulate are working hard to improve their HTML5 compatibility. While it is possible to publish for HTML5 and view content on non-Flash devices, not all features work perfectly in HTML5. I see this as Articulate's current big challenge, and I have no doubt they will rise to it.
- Added functionality to the Articulate Mobile Player (AMP). The player is great, but if you want assessment to be tracked by your LMS, you have to publish to Tin Can as the AMP does not currently support SCORM.
- The release of Storyline 2 saw added animation capability and motion paths which was just great; if one was to be greedy, this is an area that can always be added to so developers can have more options and get really creative!
- My business is called Storyline Developer, so I could say that without it I could not run this business. I found that many organisations needed either more capacity or better capability to build their e-learning, so Enter Storyline Developer.
The main reason I switched from Adobe Captivate to Articulate Storyline at the time (about 3 years ago) was primarily ease-of-use and speed. It simply took me less time and effort to produce the same result in Storyline than it did in Captivate. I found some features in Captivate more complex than they needed to be. One example at the time (and this may have changed now) was that slides moved automatically when the timeline finished, and there was no built in way to make it so the the slides moved by the user (not automatically). You had to create an invisible button and move it off the screen and trigger that button to move to the next slide when user clicked. Articulate Storyline has a very simple option of 'move automatically' or 'move by the user', simple.