Project Impact and Client Feedback

Project Overview

The Problem

The identified performance issues are the communication barriers, as well as lack of accommodations and sensory considerations being observed during interviews between potential employers and candidates with diverse abilities. The primary focus is conducting interviews with clients with autism.  During interviews, managers often need extra support in managing stress, communicating clearly, and responding appropriately to common autistic traits. Interviewers have been given tips for managing talented individuals with autistic traits, but there have been no opportunities provided for them to practice these skills in a safe, low-risk environment. The poorly conducted interviews have resulted in failed business connections for Rise Staffing, making it more challenging to help their clients find jobs.

The Solution

After working with my client and subject matter expert (SME) to analyze the performance issue, we determined that we were dealing with a knowledge and skills gap. The actions consistently not being taken stem from a lack of knowledge and skills required to successfully conduct an autism friendly interview. Many managers simply aren't aware of best practices for supporting adults with autism in an interview situation. In addition, some may experience discomfort when it comes to responding appropriately to common autistic traits. 

To solve this performance issue, I proposed a scenario-based eLearning experience that would allow managers to practice conducting autism-friendly interviews in a safe and risk-free environment.  This experience will allow learners to work through various phases of the interview and make choices to support the interviewee accordingly. When the learner choice negatively impacts the overall outcome of the interview, learners are given opportunities to try again, as well as additional learning support regarding best practices. 

The goal of the learning experience is to equip hiring managers with the skills and confidence needed to conduct an autism friendly interview. Providing hiring managers with this upfront support will help reduce the gap between current business and performance results, leading to more successful partnerships between companies and Rise Staffing. If interviews are conducted in a more autism friendly manner, the potential for moving forward with job customization increases. Thus the overall business goal of increasing job placements for clients with autism can be attained.

My Process

For this project, I used a performance consulting approach from action mapping to storyboarding, to mockups and development, all based on a measurable business goal and specific learning objectives. 

During a kickoff meeting, my client and I worked collaboratively to define our performance goal and analyze the performance problem using Action Mapping. This process allowed us to get to the root of what our learners needed to be able to do, why they weren't doing it, and whether or not training would help. Once we determined that training would be part of the solution, we moved forward with identifying learning objectives and designing activities that would support our learners in developing their inclusive interviewing skills. We focused on three high-priority actions (learning outcomes) that would help managers be more effective in conducting an autism friendly interview.  The learning experience will put the learner in the shoes of the interviewer, moving through the entire interview process. 

Action Map

Text Based Storyboard

With a focus on the three high-priority actions (learning outcomes), I began working on the text based storyboard. Here I focused on the flow of the narrative, working collaboratively with my SME on impactful choices and consequences that effectively show the positive or negative impacts of each decision. When designing scenarios and choices, it was important to ensure that we incorporated most common mistakes in addition to the best and incorrect options. We wanted to be able to address why those common mistakes were not aligned with best practices. Learner feedback is delivered within the consequences of each action  taken by the learner throughout the scenarios.

Guided by the learning outcomes and needs of the learner, I developed four questions for this learning experience, all related to the three priority actions of focus. After the development of each question, I submitted the document for feedback from my SME, then implemented feedback accordingly. 

In order to align the scenarios with real company processes, I chose to incorporate a mentor feature throughout this project. Since the company assigns clients to a job coach for mentoring throughout the job search and interview process, this eLearning experience will also include a job coach as a mentor.  If the learner needs extra support, the job coach is easily accessible. To provide the learner with feedback on progress throughout the experience, a success meter is displayed at the top of the screen. This indicates the likelihood of the learner actually partnering with Rise Staffing to customize a job for the interviewee. The learner is successful when the success meter makes it all the way to the side with the green check mark, indicating everyone works together to move forward with job customization for the interviewee.

Visual Mockups

Once the text based storyboard was complete, I shifted my focus to the visual design. First, I sourced and edited my main background images, then developed an aligned style guide to drive the overall look and feel of the experience. Using Adobe Illustrator, I edited various assets to align with the chosen color scheme. Next, I used Adobe XD to create my visual mockups beginning with wireframe development to ensure slide layouts were intuitive and learner-centered. 

After developing my wireframes, I incorporated the visual elements within each slide. Adobe XD allowed me to easily experiment with various prompt box and button styles, as well as mentor buttons. Throughout the Visual Mockup phase, my SME and Instructional Design peers provided feedback, which was implemented accordingly. Adobe tools allowed me to iterate as needed to achieve the desired look and feel my client was seeking for this project.

Style Guide and Mood Board

Visual Storyboard

My next step was to create a visual storyboard that combined the visual mockups and text based storyboard. All programming notes were also incorporated into this document. With all the key pieces of information recorded in one place, this visual storyboard would serve as my main reference in the next phase where I began recreating my work in Articulate Storyline.

Interactive Prototype

With the visual storyboard as my guide, I began developing my project in Articulate Storyline. I developed the scenario through the first question, which allowed users to experience the introduction, success meter, job coach access, as well as the question style and action consequences.  Feedback from my SME and Instructional Design peers allowed me to make adjustments regarding functionality, flow, and overall experience.  

Full Development

With the helpful feedback gained from the interactive prototype, I was able to make the necessary adjustments before moving into full development. At this point in the process, everything was pretty straightforward. Since I had already developed the project through question one, I could use this framework to develop the remaining questions and consequences. Development of the Review slide was somewhat challenging, as I wanted the learner to have specific feedback tailored to their actions throughout the experience. I used a slider with states and variables to program which feedback is given when the learner moves the slider to one of the three different priority actions.

For the learner that successfully navigated the interview process, a pdf certificate will be available for them to download. I used variables and custom javascript to generate this personalized certificate. I love that the learner can walk away with a certificate of completion!

Learners also have the option to download a one page resource that reinforces what was learned throughout the scenarios. This resource was developed in Canva.

The Results

This project was well received by the Rise Staffing team. They loved the scenarios and felt the final product was very professional, engaging, and user friendly. The feedback I received from my peers in the Instructional Design community was also incredibly supportive. Overall, many felt it was a beautiful way to approach such an important topic. It is my hope that this project can truly impact the lives of many as more businesses embrace inclusive interview strategies leading to more companies hiring and growing more neurodiverse talent.  I'd like to think this would also lead to more frequent and impactful training on cultivating inclusive work environments. 

Key Takeaways

Since I managed this project from inception to completion, there is so much for me to reflect upon throughout my journey. I enjoyed getting to merge my creativity with my knowledge of cognitive science and technology as I designed and developed this experience. Overall, my instructional design skills have grown so much throughout this process. 

Action mapping was essential in order to identify those key actions that would drive the learning design to ensure we achieved the learning outcomes. 

Feedback is key throughout such an iterative process. The informative feedback received allowed me to make the minor adjustments as needed within each stage of the project. This approach helped me avoid encountering problems at the end that would require a major reworking of content.

Technology Skill Development: This project has really helped me advance my skills and confidence in using tools like Storyline and the Adobe Creative Cloud tools. 

Collaboration: My favorite part of this experience was getting to collaborate with my SME and Instructional Design peers, as this is what truly pushed my project to go above and beyond my initial vision. Collaboration is such an important part of the design process and I am truly grateful for the many people that supported me throughout this journey.