Gina Coburn, Ph.D.
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Interactive Product Design · 2019–2020

A Certificate People Actually Finished

Interactive learning product design with Storyline, gamification & analytics

  • Articulate Storyline
  • Interaction design
  • Gamification
  • Analytics
  • SME collaboration
My role
Instructional/interaction designer: shaping deliverables, assessments, and engagement strategy with SMEs, and applying analytics and structured review to improve effectiveness.
Audience
Self-directed adult learners choosing to spend limited time, plus SMEs and internal stakeholders whose expertise had to become usable interactions rather than lectures.
FramePromptDraftEvaluateRefineHumanjudgmentAI accelerates the loop; a person decides what ships
Abstract representation — no proprietary UI shown

Context

At a media/education company, I built courses and certificate programs using Storyline, Captivate, and video-based tools, partnering with subject-matter experts to shape the deliverables.

Problem

Content-heavy online courses are easy to start and easy to abandon. The design challenge was engagement and completion: how do you turn passive material into an interactive product people move through and complete?

Constraints

  • Authoring-tool capabilities (Storyline/Captivate) set the interaction boundaries.
  • SME material arrived as expertise, not yet as designed learning.
  • Engagement had to be measurable, not assumed.

Approach

  • Turned SME content into interaction: decisions, scenarios, and feedback loops instead of linear reading.
  • Applied gamification deliberately (progress, meaningful feedback, momentum) rather than points for their own sake.
  • Used learning analytics and structured review cycles to find drop-off and iterate on the weak points.
  • Designed assessment as part of the experience, not a bolt-on at the end.

Key decisions

  • Engagement mechanics had to serve comprehension — cut anything that was engagement theater.
  • Let the data, not opinion, decide which sections got reworked.
  • Kept interactions accessible and operable rather than flashy-but-exclusionary.

Use of AI

Predates my current AI-assisted workflow, but it established the habit that carries into it: instrument the experience, read the evidence, and iterate — the same loop I now run faster with AI assistance.

Accessibility & ethics

Built interactions to be operable and understandable (clear feedback, readable pacing, keyboard/operability considerations) so engagement features didn’t exclude anyone.

Outcome

  • Interactive courses and certificate programs shipped with engagement and evidence-based iteration built in.
  • Analytics-driven review cycles that improved course effectiveness over time. [add metric: e.g., completion lift if known]

Reflection

Gamification is a means, not an end. The completions came from mechanics that made comprehension feel like progress — and from being willing to let the data change the design.

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