Art Curator Interview Skill

INTERVIEW THE ARTIST

I designed and developed this scenario-based eLearning experience to help art curators interview artists efficiently and effectively. The scenario provides a simulated environment for curator associates to practice having a real-life conversation with a famous artist. It allows them to practice in a risk-free environment so that they can perform more effectively on the job.

Based on the ADDIE (iterative) model, I implemented xAPI and JavaScript to track learners’ choices and behaviors. Collecting this data allows me to optimize the experience and track learner progress. Feedback helps me to continuously update the experience.

RESPONSIBILITIES： Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Graphic Design, Data Analytics

TOOLS USED： Articulate Storyline 360, Adobe XD, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Animate, Visual Studio Code, Mindmap, Veracity LRS

Explore the Full Experience

THE CHALLENGE

CLIENT's PROBLEM

The client reached out to me because new and seasonal art curators were not collecting sufficient information from the artists that they were interviewing. This information is important for promotional materials and, without it, attendance at the museum was falling. After interviewing the art curators, we determined that even though they were qualified on paper, they lacked experience having face-to-face conversations with artists or their teams.

"The artist team reminded me not to ask irrelevant topics. What is irrelevant? What should i do? May I ask about rumor?"

There was a manual that explained how to communicate with the artist effectively, but the art curators never got a chance to practice in a safe, feedback-rich environment. Because of this, the manual was not helping improve on-the-job behavior.

"It was too excited to see my favorite artist in the real life, I always ask yes or no questions unconsciously. Seeing that the artist has gained eyes, I know I messed up..."

SOLUTION

I proposed to build a scenario-based eLearning solution that would let the art curators practice interviewing artists in a risk-free environment. Based on their choices, they would see the realistic, memorable consequences of their actions. Seeing these consequences and practicing the correct actions will help them avoid making those mistakes in the real world. Additionally, I proposed using a learning management system (LMS) to collect data about the learner experience.

DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

ACTION MAP

After assessing the biggest pain points with the client, I met and consulted with the subject matter experts (SME), an experienced art curator, and a museum marketing director. We defined the goal and identified the specific steps that curators should take to lead the artist interview successfully.

I worked with SMEs to develop an action map with their input. We defined the goal, and I guided the experts to identify actions that art curators would take to handle the artist interview and collect the artist’s story successfully.

Then, we selected the high-priority actions that would have the biggest impact on the employees’ success. The client approved the actions for the eLearning experience, and I moved forward to create a text-based storyboard.

TEXT-BASED STORYBOARD

Once the action map was approved and we defined specific actions, I worked closely with the SMEs to write a text-based storyboard. This included all of the text, answer choices, consequences, and programming notes. Each question proposes three actions: a correct choice and two distractors.

Working with and receiving feedback from the SMEs helped me develop a realistic scenario. We focused on creating a story that mirrored the conversations in the art museums. This helped me write authentic consequences and provide the “why” when making correct choices.

From there, the client reviewed and approved the text-based storyboard created with the help of the SMEs.

CORRECT ACTION

If the learner chooses the correct action, they will see the positive consequence with unique illustrations and progress in the scenario.

WRONG ACTION

If a wrong action is selected, the learner will see the real-life consequences and are provided with a “try again” button.

SEEK FOR HELP

The "try again" button leads learners back to the question. In the scenario, the learner can seek help from a mentor at any point before choosing the options for each step of the scenario.

VISUAL MOCK-UP

GRAPHIC DESIGN: Adobe XD & Adobe Illustrator

After the client approved the text-based storyboard, I moved into creating visual mockups for the scenario-based eLearning project. I decided to choose one of the famous contemporary artists Yayoi Kusama’s story as a sample and design the whole project with her artwork color scheme and visual components.

I also incorporated some of the works provided by illustrator Elisa Macellari who has worked with the client before to assist in publicity. I used Adobe Illustrator to create all of custom characters for the project.

Then, I moved on to Adobe XD to create layouts for the background, prompt screens, question slides, artist portfolio, and credit slide. Once designs were agreed upon with the client’s feedback, I laid out the rest of the visuals with the slides.

MOTION-GRAPHIC DESIGN: Adobe Animate

I used Adobe Animate to create the custom artist opening and ending animations and received a lot of positive feedback on these effects.

INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE

For this client project, I used Articulate Storyline 360 to create the interactive prototype, which I had planned out visually in Adobe XD beforehand. The prototype included several screens and a question so that the client and audience could get a feel for the functionality.

THE DATA

xAPI IMPLEMENTATION

xAPI tracking of learner behaviors supports the course’s instructional design and strengthens further iteration.

LEARNER INFO COLLECTING

Collecting each learners' email and name help me providing learning score, sending update info and subsequent/related courses.

ANSWER TRACKING

Unlike traditional SCORM, the avage pass rate and complete rate could provide enough evdiences. Tracking each choice of learners can help me determine which question pose the biggest challenge. So as to grasp the difficulty of the problem. In subsequent improvements and updates, I can identify whether additional information or training on a topic may be needed.

TIME SPENTING

This eLearning experience uses xAPI to track how long a learner spends on the experience and hong long spends on each question. This information provides whether users are engaged, whether particular questions require significantly more reflection than others, and whether users are failing certain questions.