A Tale of Two Avocados

I designed and developed this eLearning teaser to highlight Apeel Sciences' innovative plant-based “peel” that helps fruits and veggies stay fresh longer.

• Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Graphic Design
• Client: Apeel Sciences
• Tools Used: Storyline 360, Illustrator, Snag-it
• Budget: Low
• Year: 2019

Process

With this project, I set out to create an eLearning teaser that would introduce people to Apeel and what it's capable of. At the same time, I wanted this project to give organizational stakeholders an idea of how eLearning could be leveraged organization-wide.

After identifying my instructional objective, I sourced content from Apeel's website.

I drew visual inspiration for the project by perusing Apeel's Instagram and website. They have a powerful brand and an even more powerful mission, and I intended to respect that in the eLearning that I developed.

One thing that stood out to me about the branding on their Instagram is their use of modern animation and rich visuals. From their website, I took note of their font and color-scheme.

Design and Development

With the content in hand and the visual direction decided, I began creating assets for the project.

First, I created a visually engaging title screen and an attention-grabbing title: A Tale of Two Avodacos. Since a key feature of the project would be a visual comparison of two avocados, one that has been dipped in Apeel and one that has not been dipped in Apeel, this title seemed apt.

I used triangles and motion paths within Storyline for a slick, angular animation between slides. This mirrored some of the animations included on the Apeel Instagram.

From there, I took a screenshot of every frame in a time-lapse video showing the effect that Apeel has on an avacado. I used these these screenshots to create a slider interaction that the user can control on their own — thereby allowing them to view the effect that Apeel has on an avocado over the course of 28 days. This feature highlights the interactive, user-driven capabilities of eLearning.

Finally, I designed an optional screen that explains how Apeel works, and I provided a link to the Apeel website for anyone interested in learning more.

You can view the project in the video below, but keep in mind that the animations in the live project are much smoother.

The client was thrilled with the end product, and it helped them envision how eLearning could be used to support active learning online. We plan to partner on additional projects in 2020.

Takeaways

My biggest takeaways for this project are those surrounding animation and branding.

First, it was a strong exercise in branding. I used elements of the client's brand to create a piece of eLearning that is immediately and obviously recognizable. Rather than limit myself to a simple style guide, I took elements from the client's website and social channels.

Going forward, I plan to look at all of a client's communication channels when deciding on branded elements.

I also enjoyed using more complex animation in this project. I developed everything within Storyline, but I made complex animations possible by using shapes and motion paths. I hope to use more of these visually engaging, unique animations in projects going forward.