Wonderful Product with Quirks
May 11, 2020

Wonderful Product with Quirks

Joseph Benton | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Articulate Studio 360

Overall Satisfaction with Articulate Studio

As a consulting agency, I work with different companies to create their e-learning programs. Articulate Studio 360 not only allows me to publish their e-learning programs in one of the suite's applications (Storyline 360), but also to provide feedback in another of the suite's applications (Review 360). In addition, there is an application that is mobile-first for the web publishing of e-learning projects (Rise 360) which some clients prefer. Additionally, many features that have been requested by users have been incorporated into new ways of producing e-learning with features and dedicated applications such as Content Library 360. This suite, when purchased by the client, allows them to also make modifications to their programs as necessary, but it is a bigger and grander version of Articulate Storyline 2 and its features.
  • In terms of e-learning, there is nothing I can imagine that Articulate Studio can't do; the features are all-encompassing in terms of what they allow a creative author to make.
  • New features that are part of Articulate Studio are game-changers in the amount of time and effort saved by having dedicated and integrated applications performing specific functions such as dedicated graphic imports of royalty-free images and drawings that I would normally pull from the web. Additionally, there are tons of characters with multiple poses and expressions that help to add storyboard characters which can be added/changed to illustrate stories. Separately, this capability was time-intensive and costly.
  • Just having the Review 360 app is a unique game-changer in and of itself. I can't tell you how many different ways that clients prefer to give feedback to e-learning projects: email, Word docs, PowerPoint comments, teleconferencing live comments, etc. and they are all wastes of time compared to using Review 360 where feedback is given on each slide, replies are sent by email and each piece of feedback can be acknowledged and comments removed leaving a clean slate finished product.
  • If you're in love with SVG graphics like I am, with their small size and super-high resolution at any scale, then you'll be disappointed to know that you can't directly add SVGs. This is a functionality that the web is embracing and it's sad to see Articulate not incorporating such a feature.
  • One pet peeve I have had of Articulate is their "support" which consists of a community board with searchable questions and answers and comments which is often very useful. It is also staffed by support personnel from Articulate. Unfortunately, they can't open a support case or ticket on your behalf and they give the impression they are first-level support and do provide some guidance but not beyond the level of a power-user even though their profile says they are with the company. It's woefully confusing and disappointing compared to most companies that sell software with support.
  • Articulate's products are enormously easier to use than their rivals at Adobe, but Articulate is often in the habit of ignoring many long-term problems which can be found by searching their "support" boards. Strange and weird bugs, if a bit obscure, are never fixed even though they would make an already awesome program that much more stellar.
  • This program is VERY expensive compared to offerings from their chief rival Adobe, but it really does not seem to phase the leadership at Articulate that they may easily quadruple their number of users if they would just cut their cost in half and they do not seem prepared to even experiment with such an offer.
  • Articulate Studio is a must-have for some clients and lacking it would be a non-starter.
  • Articulate Studio is simply the best time-saver in terms of producing complex e-learning programs; it's not the cheapest, but if you factored in the amount of time it would take to accomplish the same thing on a rival piece of software, you will pay more if you don't use Articulate Studio.
  • My business absolutely relies on Articulate Studio and so there can be no profitability in my business without it.
Several Adobe products combine to do the work of just Articulate Storyline, which is part of Articulate Studio. The comparison is not really one that is easy to make but if you needed to do something with these Adobe products, all of them can be done with just Storyline. The beauty of Articulate Studio is that there are parts of the suite for which there is no match in Adobe such as Review 360 and Content Library 360.
If Articulate, as a company, would require their "community" "support" staff to open tickets on behalf of customers, then I would say that their support would deserve a 10. It's a huge gap between Articulate's management of their support compared to other companies; "support" staff are supposed to open tickets for you if they see the need, but Articulate's "community" "support" staff are prohibited from doing so. Instead, they will tell you that you should open a ticket when it should be their job!! This is just disrespectful of the reality of software support.

Do you think Articulate Studio delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Articulate Studio's feature set?

Yes

Did Articulate Studio live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Articulate Studio go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Articulate Studio again?

Yes

Articulate Studio is constantly surprising in terms of what it can do. It is like a "Swiss Army Knife" of functionality. I've used it to build portfolios, whole interactive websites, authoring videos and I often discover novel ways to make it useful on a pretty regular basis. What would be a situation where you would not want to use Articulate Studio? Well, even though you can use it to author video and to publish websites, it's not a replacement for a video editing package or a web platform like WordPress, but there are times when it will do certain things in an astoundingly simple way superior to other tools.

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