The Candidate’s Experience
Animated Explainer Video
Design and create an engaging promotional video to explain the “why” to a specific internal process.
The Task:
The leadership team approached me to talk about an internal process they were focused on improving and asked for my help with training APAC staff to do the task more reliably.
The Tools:
Illustrator (style frames, animation preparation)
After Effects (animation)
Audition (Voice-Over Editing)
The Process:
I was hired as the lead Instructional Designer at Allegis Group, so the training content way my main focus here. I interviewed some staff to see where they were at with training on the process, and to my surprise, everyone I talked to knew how to do it - they just weren’t sure why they were doing it, so they often just let it slide.
I talked with the leadership team to let them know what I’d found; this wasn’t a knowledge issue, this was a motivation issue. To get the staff to reliably do this process, we needed to let them know why they were doing it.
We decided that the best way to do this was to appeal to their emotional side, and create an animated avatar with a full backstory to demonstrate the client’s problem, and how this internal process was solving that problem for them.
I interviewed some clients to find out what their experience was when this process did happen and how it affected them. Using the information, I wrote a script, mocked up a story-board, and presented the idea to the leadership team. They loved the idea and gave me the green-light to move forward.
Using vector assets from iStock, I put together some style-frames, and once I had those approved I used the assets to create an in-depth storyboard. The team approved the script and the final storyboard.
Due to limited time and budget for this project, I recorded and mastered the voice-over myself (which unfortunately I can’t share due to confidentiality). I prepared the assets for animation, then dropped it all into After Effects and started animation the explainer video.
This was something the company had never done before, so I made sure to keep them in the loop of where I was in the process, and shared renders for the first few scenes once I had them in draft. After animating the whole explainer video, I rendered and sent it to a few key stakeholders for revision, including the leadership team and in-house graphic designer. A few rounds of minor edits and we were done!
We released the video to an APAC audience and tracked the numbers behind the process. Now, I can’t claim that the process change was all due to the explainer video, as there were some other initiatives focusing on the same outcome. What I can say is that there was a high level of engagement with the explainer video, and as a result of a combined effort, the client reported an uptick on the process - rising by about 400%!