Lost in Translation

Approach

While brainstorming new projects, I had a conversation with a friend who used to be a training specialist for a major Chinese airline. They highlighted how multicultural barriers were one of the biggest challenges for flight attendants, and their inability to overcome them is the number one complaint by passengers. This resonated with me as someone who overcomes language barriers daily.

In many cases, the training would just involve language classes, which takes many years of practice and is an impractical approach to overcome language barriers with people from all over the world. This prompted me to develop a scenario-based learning solution that airlines could use to train their flight attendants, helping them effectively communicate with passengers from diverse backgrounds and enhance the overall customer experience.

My Process

I designed and developed this project in the following order:

Speak with my SME and target a learning objective
Create an Action Map with Mindmeister
Write out the Text-based Storyboard
Design the Videos and Images
Develop the interactivity
Review and publish

Although I do enjoy some parts over others, each part of my process was vital to the finalized product.

SME + Action Map

I collaborated with a Subject Matter Expert to create an action map that defined the overall goal for my flight attendant training lesson. This blueprint allowed us to identify the specific tools and actions that flight attendants could use to overcome language barriers and provide excellent customer service.

We prioritized the most important actions and turned them into essentially the pillars of the lesson that I used to develop interactive scenarios in my text-based storyboard. Once the SME approved the action map, I moved forward with developing the storyboard.

Story Board

After I had a clear idea of what I wanted to create for the lesson, I started putting together a text-based storyboard. I used Microsoft Word to create it, which was pretty simple although time consuming as I frequently went back to make changes. In the storyboard, I made sure to include all the important information I would need when designing like prompts, interactive elements, and scene transitions. Having all of this information planned ahead of time made the design process much more streamlined and organized.

It was a little bit like creating a movie script, I was planning out the interactions and activities that the flight attendants would experience. It was actually really fun and creative to think about all the different ways I could make the lesson engaging and effective!

Creating the Visuals

The next part in my process was creating the visuals, which was probably my favorite part of the project. I used Vyond to create scenes that people could relate to, but I knew that not everyone would identify with the female flight attendant I chose for the lesson. To compensate for this, I made sure that the rest of the visuals were as realistic as possible. This included leaving some seats open in first class, adults traveling with their elderly parents, kids playing on tablets, and some non-Chinese passengers.

To ensure that the visuals were visually sound, I used best practices such as proximity, alignment, contrast, and typography. I made sure that the elements were organized in a way that was easy to understand and navigate, and that the text was legible and easy to read. Overall, I was able to create visuals that not only looked great, but also effectively communicated the message of the lesson.

Interactivity

For the Interactivity part of my process I utilized Adobe XD. Since the interactivity primarily involved selecting buttons, I found it wasn't necessary to use Storyline 360 or any other authoring tools. Instead, I focused on creating a seamless user experience through simple but effective interactions in Adobe XD. This approach allowed me to iterate quickly and efficiently, resulting in an engaging and user-friendly e-learning module.

Throughout this process, I worked closely with my subject matter expert to gather feedback and make revisions as needed, ensuring that everything flowed smoothly and met the learning objectives. The iterative nature of the design process in Adobe XD allowed me to refine the interactivity until it met the desired level of engagement and effectiveness for the e-learning module.

Takeaways

I spent three weeks developing "Lost in Translation," from start to finish. The lesson was well-received by both my SME and colleagues, particularly for its engaging visuals and scenario-based approach. Despite encountering numerous roadblocks and learning curves along the way, I feel that the end result was well worth the effort, and I learned a great deal in the process.

Although I wasn't hired by an airline to create this lesson, I attempted to conduct part of what could be included in a Kirkpatrick Level 4 evaluation, which was to estimate the potential cost savings the airline my SME worked for, would see had they implemented these lessons. This involved calculating the salaries of flight attendants and my SME during their multicultural training, the number of flight attendants per class, frequency of the classes, as well as the time and money invested in developing the lesson. In comparison to the current method of providing English lessons with minimal results, I found that implementing interactive lessons like this would result in substantial cost savings for the airline.

If I were to continue developing this project, I would likely move it into Articulate Storyline and incorporate xAPI. This integration would enable me to track the duration of learners' engagement with each slide, evaluate their interactions and choices, and identify areas that require further improvement.