Showing the Learner Speaking

smiller7502

I'm trying something new and could use some ideas.

The script I'm developing e-learning from gives some lines to the learner as he or she interacts with characters on the screen. In some cases, these are presented as options for the question, "What would you say?", and those are easy to develop and seem clear when presented to test users. But in other cases, the learner's dialog is just stuff he or she would say in real life and is needed to move the interaction along, not to test any knowledge.

Other characters in the course speak (with audio), and their dialog is represented in speech bubbles. But without making the learner customize an avatar, I'm struggling to find a clear way to show the learner that this piece of dialog is him or her speaking. The backgrounds show the learner's perspective, so even an androgynous silhouette would seem out of place; the whole idea is that the learners are in the scene and would not see themselves.

Currently I have the learner's dialog looking similar to test answers, with "YOU: " preceding the text and without the mouse-over lit-up versions the test answers have. While most testers have not commented on this, one tester expected to have to click these boxes and one expected audio.

Who's got a creative idea?

mnotermans5114

A few things come at mind...

Hands stretching from outside the view, thus showing its the user talking..and then visualizing the text on a notepad or something in front of him... something like this...



 

Or notepads showing the texts..although that not necessarily gives a clue about that the user is speaking...



 

I do think the first idea is something to work on. If you can get several hands holding different poses, like this... you can create a multitude of poses to work from. If needed i can help with it...

 

smiller7502

The hands would raise diversity issues. A white man's hands would not help an African-American female feel like it was her.

mnotermans5114

Mmm...true... Robot hands ;-) using different sets of hands for sure might need too much different ones. White, black, asian, male and female... at least 6 sets..

Pointing text balloons or something else out of the view for sure is a start..

klaatu

Along the same train of thought how about using a different font family for the learner. Maybe different color text as well?