"Culture Clash" Interactive Story Map

My client, WorldKind, is an organization that operates by "partnering on "world-kind" projects that help to design collaborative, inclusive, and kinder spaces for everyone and that make learning more accessible for everyone" (WorldKind.com). Following this goal, they have created the Traveler Trainer PROgram to help university students that are planning on studying abroad know what to expect and how to best prepare for their trip. I was drawn to this project as I studied abroad a couple times when I was in college and would have loved to have had access to something like this before my trips abroad. I knew I wanted to be a part of making this possible for someone else. 

This interactive story map is an asset designed for the Accessibility Module within this online program. Throughout the program, the learner follows the story of a group of students that are on a study abroad trip. Each character has divergent traits that affect their experience in various ways. In the Accessibility Module, the learner gains an understanding of what to expect when you're abroad regarding possible disabilities including physical, mental, and chronic medical conditions. In the "Culture Clash" Interactive Story Map the learner is shown examples of how certain disabilities may "clash" with aspects of other cultures, and then offered possible solutions to these challenges.

My specific contributions to this asset include designing several of the animated gifs that accompany some of the examples of potential "clashes". WorldKind provided me with a text-based storyboard from which I used to create the gifs from. More on those in a bit...

How it works

The landing page of the map shows a pin board with a map of the world that has numerous pins. On the left hand side of the board illustrates five of our characters with different conditions that may present challenges once they are abroad. The learner has two options from here: they may either click on the characters on the left to go through that characters examples, or they can select one of the pins on the map to view that specific example. Each character has a coordinating color of pin that shows a challenge they faced while abroad. 

The first option, selecting a character on the left hand side of the board, brings up that character's overall experience abroad and describes the traits that may create challenges for them once abroad. It will also make it so that only that character's pins remain on the board. Here's what you'd see had you selected on Sara, whose challenges are shaped by her mobility abilities.

Many of the gifs I designed were for this character's examples, including her stories in Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Thailand, and Japan. Selecting one of these red pins will bring you to a page that gives the context of that story accompanied by an animated gif of the event.

The first gif I designed (and my first experience ever using the Vyond animating program) was for Sara's experience in Morocco. The situation (described on the screenshot below) that Sara faced in Morocco was when she was shopping at a local Souk when suddenly she quickly needed to use the restroom. She rushes (using her crutches) to the nearest restroom, which to her shock features a "squatty potty" or floor toilet. These are very common in Morocco (I myself used many during my own study abroad trip there!), and would be challenging to use for people that have mobility issues. At the bottom of the gif has an "Adjustment Ideas" button that learners can select for possible solutions to this challenge.

Learning Vyond

This being my first experience using Vyond, there was a bit of a learning curve. As with learning any new program, it takes a bit of time to figure out the tools. In the beginning, it probably took me about three hours just to get ten seconds of animation done. As I continued working with the program, I began to work faster and become more creative with how I illustrated the scene. Many times, Vyond did not have a pre-made object and I would have to figure out how to create something myself out of various other elements. In the gif accompanying Sara's experience in Morocco (shown below), the "squatty potty" is an example of an object I had to create myself.

As time went on and I continued developing these gifs, I had a lot of fun working in Vyond! I loved having a vision for what the scene would depict and bringing that vision to life. It's also very rewarding to see yourself develop the skills of mastering a new program that a short time ago you'd never used before. 

Below, I've inserted the rest of the gifs I created for this map.

Thailand

If you select the red pin on the map located in Thailand, you'd read about Sara's experience going to the movies in Thailand. At the beginning of a movie in all movie theaters in Thailand, the King's Anthem is played and everyone will stand as a mark of respect. For someone like Sara who deals with mobility issues, this would prove a challenge. See the gif below illustrating this moment:

Japan

In Japan, Sara checks into her hotel which only has floor mats to sleep on. With her disability, getting up and down off the floor is difficult. See this illustrated below:

Tunisia

Sara's experience in Tunisia is similar to that in Japan. Sara and her friend go to a restaurant and once they're brought to the table they realize the seating is once again on the floor. See this gif below:

Jordan

In Jordan, Sara faces another challenge. When visiting a mosque, where attendees must separate by gender, Sara may need to be separated from her male caregiver. This is illustrated below:

Bernard in Argentina

The last gif I created was for a different character, Bernard, who has Type 1 diabetes and must keep an eye on his blood sugar levels. In this scenario, Bernard is shown attempting to meet with his friends for a meal; however, they're busy chatting and are late. He checks his glucose level which is showing to be low. See the accompanying gif below:

Reflection and Takeaways

Timing is crucial

One of the aspects you must tweak quite a bit when developing any animation or videos in general is the timing. Much of the time spent working on these gifs was getting the timing down to where the camera movements to align with the character's actions to show the context in a way that flows well. I also took care to not make the gifs too long (about 14 seconds was the max) so the quality would not suffer when inserted into the interactive map.

Get creative

Thinking outside the box was also very important when making these. As I stated before, often times I would want a certain object or effect to show in the video that did not exist in the program's library. In these cases, I'd have to figure out how to construct the object myself by using base shapes and altering them to give them the desired look. This resourcefulness is important when using any program that has limitations. 

Practice and then practice some more

Learning a new program is hard at first, but after I spent some more time practicing with Vyond, I quickly developed the skills and confidence to successfully create the content needed. Having this experience was invaluable to me to show that while it may take time, with practice, people have the ability to learn anything. This goes for me as I continue to develop my skills in Instructional Design and for the learners we create content for.