Just like many of you, over the years I have been using a wide range of different tools to produce eLearning storyboards. Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Google Slides, etc. each with its own pros and cons. Also, there are some professional storyboarding tools like Plot but they are mostly designed yo address filming industry requirements and of course, there is a cost involved.

I have recently started to try Adobe XD and I believe it has some great potentials to be considered as the best storyboarding tool at least for some of us. Here are some of the reasons why:

It is Free!

This is not the main concern for many, but for larger teams (like the one that I am working with) scalability is important. Being free, make the tool available for all team members so collaboration can happen easier. Here is the page to download it for free: https://www.adobe.com/au/products/xd.html#x

Your developers (and visual designers) will love your storyboard.

When you storyboard in Adobe XD, you use the real-life actual frame sizes that will be used for development. You can choose if this learning experience will be a web page, an app or your traditional Storyline slide size. Using the actual frame sizes is a huge help for developers (and visual designers) to make sure that they don’t have to change the aspect ratio of images or using different font sizes, etc. You and your teammates are working with the same design language. They are going to love it.

Collaboration with Adobe XD is a breeze.

With Adobe XD you can share your storyboard with SMEs or Clients with a simple web link. They can provide comments and you will be notified when they do.

Prototyping!

Ok, now this is something exciting. If you have ever had to explain the desired functionality of your design to an SME or a developer, you will find this ‘awesome’. With XD you can instantly turn your design into a live prototype which you can share with your SMEs, clients or team with working links and buttons and everything. AND you can record a video just from the convenience of your XD to show the desired functionality of the experience.

Wireframing!

Again, as you storyboard, you are working on your actual frame and you can use a wide range of wireframing tools to show off your storyboard cool aspects :) You can even have scrolling pages in your storyboard (something that we could only wish for using Powerpoint or Google Slides)

Add and share those lovely fonts, colour palettes and other assets that you have found, directly with your team.

If you ever come across example images, or you like a font or a colour palette, you can easily add those to your XD assets so your visual designer/developer can easily pick them up and use. No need to reinvent the wheel :)

Great tool for rapid development

I found XD to be very easy to learn and use. With a little effort, you can have someone up and running. There are many tools to help with the rapid development of the storyboard. While storyboarding you can use linked symbols that can potentially be updated all at once if you decide to change them later. There are lots of optional add ons and plugins that can be used as well.

Lots of useful tutorials are available as well. I found this example from Melissa Milloway very useful. She has shared her workflow in designing and development of an eLearning experience: https://elearningindustry.com/design-elearning-with-adobe-xd

Some shortcomings!?

Ok, moment of truth! XD is built for Experience Designers and not Instructional Designers, so it is understandable (sadly) that it’s not as perfect with managing text content. When you are dealing with a huge amount of text and if you envisage lots of changes, it might be a bit problematic. It is my initial experience though and it might improve over time.

Final words, finally :)

For larger teams and/or in case that you produce a variety of learning experiences Adobe XD can be a real game changer (unreal in fact!). It can make the production process much easier and quicker. Of course, you might need to put in place some processes to make sure the team can communicate use it smoothly.

However(!) if the majority of what you produce is traditional eLearning modules (the same frame size and style) and you don’t need to change it too much or prototype it, then XD might not make such a difference.

Love to hear your thoughts, ideas and experiences.