The Stuff That Résumés Are Made Of

I’d recently been admiring some examples of graphic résumés, but couldn’t imagine how I could ever do one. Turns out Articulate’s resident nudger, David Anderson, keeps an eye out for that sort of thing and his challenge this week is to come up with an interactive résumé or portfolio. So time for me to figure it out.

I haven’t had much call for a résumé since I’ve been independent, but creating an interactive graphic where I could play with the idea of a résumé sounded like fun, so off I went.

Click Image for Demo

Inspiration

My friend and talented freelance e-learning designer Donna Carson gave me edits for a bio I submitted with my DevLearn speaking proposals on Friday. The phrases she used made me want to both laugh and go conquer the world at the same time. Her description of my “fearless flair” in designing training inspired me to come up with “Fearless Designs!” “Bold Voiceovers!” and “Daring Development!” to describe what I do.

For graphic inspiration I turned to old movie posters. They had the expressive graphics and cool details I wanted, plus they could handle the dramatic phrases I had in mind.

My Graphic Inspiration

Design

Graphics: To start, I pinned old movie posters I liked and chose a color scheme that resonated with me. You can clearly see I used the colors and rough layout of the Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum poster. For text callouts and credits I used elements based on other posters including The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.

Theme: I chose a detective theme because I was drawn to the idea of Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade. He’s on the right side of the law, but still seems a little shady. (His line that the Maltese Falcon is “the stuff that dreams are made of” inspired this post’s title.)

More Graphic Inspiration

The Theater: I wanted an entry screen so that, once clicked, the user’s full attention is on the initial visuals, music, and animation when they hit the main screen – and having them click a ticket to get inside made sense.

The way the overall flow works is based on the little theater I practically lived at as an undergrad at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. The Minor, off the little town square, was an old art house movie theater that changed its double or triple features at least three times a week. I spent a few thousand of the happiest hours I’ve ever spent in my life there, and got to see a gabillion classic movies like the ones that inspired this piece.

The Minor Theater

When it was cold out, you’d come off the street through a thick red curtain, get popcorn and admire the old movie posters in the lobby, then go through another red curtain to enter the theater. So I was seeing my résumé as one of those old posters in the lobby.

Audio: I wanted to bring it to life with sound. There are effects for audience buzz, curtains being pulled aside, cheers, applause, police whistles, sirens, screams, breaking glass, etc., but I wanted a theme song. The whole time I was working on this I kept hearing a driving theme somewhere between Peter Gunn and James Bond. Lucky for me I’ve got an “in” with talented songwriter, musician, and freelance e-learning guy Dan Sweigert who was able to write and produce the theme song in no time flat.

Content

Résumé Elements: I kept it simple and included my (boldly-phrased) skill set, education, experience, and the main software I use. The sections for education and experience were by far the biggest creative challenges, but in the end I was happy to find a quick way to blow through them that still maintains the tone and theme.

Brevity: I find it endlessly entertaining that each of the links from the main screen shows just one screen of content (at best) that makes the audience go wild. I wanted to get in, show a glimpse of just a morsel of my work, and get out. The full versions of each piece are in my online portfolio, and the link to it is in the player tab at the top.

External Links: I renamed the player’s “Resources” tab to “UNCOVER MORE!” and had fun coming up with suspicious-sounding titles for the links to my blog, online portfolio, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter account. They make me laugh every time.

See It In Action!

Enjoy the vintage-inspired goodness right here.

 

 

Let’s Start at the End (Of Your Course)

This week’s Articulate E-Learning Heroes challenge is to send a little love to the end of your course. It can be lonely and confusing back there – (“Is it over?” “What am I supposed to do?”) – so this week we’re sending back a life line.

The Beginning of the End

Context & Theme

I wanted to indicate we’re starting at the very end of an interminably long course. My first choice was to start at the end of pi, but finding the end of pi is even more nebulous than the end of most courses, so that was out. (Maybe when I see Neil DeGrasse Tyson at DevLearn in October I’ll ask him if he’s made any progress on that Pi issue.)

So instead I created (the end of) a course called “Enough Already! 5,000 Little-Known Animal Facts”, which starts on the last part of the last fact about the last animal.

Indicating Completion and Next Steps

Spelling it Out

To be clear that you’ve reached the end of the course, I start with a congrats slide that also indicates you have a little more to do before you go.

Final Decisions

Final Decisions

Which leads to an animal-themed screen where you get to make decisions.

Hover State Visual: Hovering over each picture reveals where you’ll go if you click on it.

Hover State Audio: Hovering also reveals a bit of audio. Its purpose is to add a touch of interest, amusement, and wake you up – but there have been reports of startled coworkers and kitties as of late, so consider yourself warned.

Gate Screen for Feedback

Gate Screens

After you make a selection you’ll go to a gate screen to confirm your choice.

David Anderson had a gate screen challenge a few months ago where he talked about them, and you can also see the different examples created by members of the community.

Placeholder for Feedback

Room for More

In this example, if you choose anything other than “Exit” you’re taken to placeholder slides that could harbor summarizing thoughts, more resources, ideas for review, or a means of leaving feedback.

See it in Action!

Take a look at this wild little ending right here.