Blog posts

The expert advice emphasised the pivotal role of emotions and player self-expression in crafting interactive narrative, along with the importance of designing believable characters and meaningful choices. A comprehensive heuristics framework to craft ISL was developed based on the insights from this phase. Through iterative prototyping and reflection, the heuristics framework was evaluated and refined, and subsequently applied to the recrafting of a virtual patient for compassion training

While no statistically significant differences for narrative transportation were found, the results from the playthrough data and open-ended questions demonstrated that incorporating emotional depth into virtual patient design significantly impacted learner engagement and empathy. Participants exhibited more compassionate care when interacting with the recrafted virtual patient, showing highly improved decision-making to promote patient outcomes.

Work where you are an expert and can assess quickly whether AI is good or bad.

Work that is mere translation between frames or perspectives. For example, you have developed a policy but now have to turn it into a dozen different training documents for different audiences in your organization. AI is very good at this sort of translation, increasing and decreasing complexity of documents so that people can understand them.

Work where you know that AI is better than the Best Available Human that you can access, and where the failure modes of AI will not result in worse outcomes if it gets something wrong.

Work where you need variance, and where you will select the best answer as an editor or curator. Asking for a variety of solutions - give me 15 ways to rewrite this bullet in radically different styles, be creative - allows you to find ideas that might be interesting.

Beyond these clear-cut cases, here are five subtle but important areas where AI use can be counterproductive: When you need to learn and synthesize new ideas or information. Asking for a summary is not the same as reading for yourself. Asking AI to solve a problem for you is not an effective way to learn, even if it feels like it should be.

End alt text with a period, even if it isn’t a full sentence. The period ensures that the screen reader pauses after reading the alt text.

Summary:  Images are decorative, functional, or informative. Skip alt text for decorative. Describe the action for functional. Convey the message for informative.

BEM helps us shift our focus from learning to performance. Instead of just making sure people know stuff, we ensure they can actually do stuff.

BEM breaks down performance into six key factors. These are split into two categories: environmental supports and individual attributes or behavioural repertory. By looking at these factors, we can figure out what’s holding performance back and how to fix it.

Excellent choice design will increase the engagement of your learners in the story, intrigue them about consequences and entice them to replay to check out other paths.

Choices in branching scenarios consist of three closely interconnected parts:Framing: the information the learner uses to make the choiceOptions: the possible choicesOutcomes: what happens due to choosing one of the options.

Choices can offer diverse acceptable ways to achieve the same goal, giving learners opportunity to personalise the experience.

An extra path can also replace boring “try again” situations: the consequence shows your choice was not ideal, but you simply continue and get another chance further in the story to make a better informed, similar choice.

Clear and confined parameters help to make the choice feel integral to the context, while still leaving room for personal expression and emotional connection.

One of my favourite narrative designers, Jon Ingold from Inkle Studios, introduced the accept – reject – deflect model. For example, in a conversational choice where someone asks you a question, this could mean the following:Accept: continue the current conversation, e.g. simply answer the questionReject: react negatively or refuse to answer. Deflect: change the topic, e.g. ignore, bounce a question back or refocus attention