How to Find Your Perfect Apartment

Interactive E-Learning Project

This is an interactive eLearning project designed to help young adults or transitioning adults. As a young adult, it can be difficult to know what to look for when finding your first apartment.

Audience: Young Adults

Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Visual Design, Storyboard, and Mockups

Tools Used: Articulate Storyline, Adobe Stock, Adobe Illustrator, Canva

Resources: Ward, Davina. “Apartment Hunting Checklist.” Apartment List, Apartment List, 20 Oct. 2021, apartmentlist.com/renter-life/apartment-hunting-checklist

OVERVIEW

When I found myself looking for my first apartment after living in a dorm room, it was overwhelming. While looking for websites for advice, I found myself looking at walls of text that were difficult to engage with. I have since grown to be better at what to look for in an apartment. I wanted to use my knowledge along with apartmentlist.com to create a resource that would help other young adults with finding their own apartment.

I imagined an eLearning interaction that young adults would be able to access and use when looking for their first apartment. It would be easy to use and engage with. This guide would, ultimately, increase knowledge of apartments and what to look for in them.

I determined that an interaction using buttons would be best. It takes the user straight to whichever concept that they want to learn and it is easily digestible.

DESIGN

I based my design on what I wanted to avoid, which was big blocks of text. I decided I wanted to break up the main topics into buttons. This would allow users to interact with each topic that they needed information on. It would also allow users to skip topics that they were well versed in. I gathered the main topics from apartmentlist.com along with some that I found important while on my search for an apartment.

Each topic has a hovering animation. This was important for me because I wanted to make sure; the user knew the meaning of the words and what was going to be discussed if clicked. I created a layer in Articulate Storyline for each button in order to get the hovering feature. I also wanted a character to represent the user. I found the character using Adobe Stock and edited him within the project using Adobe Illustrator.

FULL DEVELOPMENT

I created a short storyboard, designed visual mockups, and developed a prototype. After previewing the project and experimenting with different animation and transitions in Articulate Storyline 360, I developed a practical final product.

After the storyboard was made, I began designing the setting of my project. I wanted the setting to reflect apartment buildings since that is the purpose of the project. I used Canva to create the background setting of each slide. I also decided to change up the time of day displayed on each slide to add some differentiation to the project.

RESULTS & TAKEAWAYS

This project helped me explore all of the many features that Articulate has to offer. I gained a better knowledge and control over the software and how to use it. Although it was difficult at first, I did not falter in my design choices. I instead rose up to the occasion and challenged myself to apply new solutions and learn to achieve my vision for the final project.