New Resource: A Guide to Design
Whether you are new to design or looking to develop a strong foundation or just want to refresh your design skills check out this new website which provides a great experience to learn. https://start.uxdesign.cc

Whether you are new to design or looking to develop a strong foundation or just want to refresh your design skills check out this new website which provides a great experience to learn. https://start.uxdesign.cc
Using the new ClipDrop.co you are able to quickly grab any object that is around you. This blows my mind every time I use it because I think about in the old days, yesterday, having to either reposition everything perfectly or opening a photo in Photoshop and spending an hour or more editing.
ClipDrop.co can be installed on your iOS or Android device and there is a complimentary Mac or Windows app which will sync the photos to your computer to use instantly in whatever program you want.
After a handful of tests, you will need to subscribe to a monthly or yearly subscription but the cost is worth it, $40 per year, if you use it in one comp or product.
Learn more and links to download at ClipDrop.co
We discovered the new Pokémon Smile app for my 9yo and he loves it. It’s transformed the “discussions” around brushing to a fun interactive time where he’s learning good habits. It’s funny, but he actively looks forward to brushing to see if we can catch a Pokémon. I didn’t mention, it uses augmented reality to interact and show and place elements on your head and face during the process to making it more fun.
For homework, I recommend downloading, trying it out and think about:
Two things I took note of for the younger audience:
A quick look at the app:
The main menu allows you to Get Brushing, check out the Pokémon book to learn about what you can catch after brushing as rewards – this creates a little Mystery. The yellow icon lets you play or see elements you can place on your head and as you use it more and more it unlocks additional elements.
During the brushing, you can turn on the ability to capture photos, review after brushing, decorate with additional Pokémon, and save to your photos library. This can also be disabled if you prefer not to take photos.
Check out the Official Site and you can link to download on Apple App Store or Google Play. For fun you can watch the trailer:
The Hook Model uses 4 key elements: trigger, action, reward, and investment. If you want to dive deeper. watch this 13-minute video overview to understand the this practice by the author of Hooked by Nir Eyal
One of the apps I use every day to keep everything moving smoothly is Keyboard Maestro by Stairways Software.
Features that I use everyday:
For $36, you can also test drive it with a free trial, it will help you be more productive if you are looking to combine or automate several actions together.
Challenge: Need to grab a long scrolling page.
Solution: from within Chrome:
or in Responsive Mode
PNG is saved directly to your downloads and your ready to review, annotate or share (after a little compression / export to JPEG or PDF).
Got to hang out with Brent and Chris broadcast of Instructional Designers in Offices Drinking Coffee this morning to talk about the latest tech gadgets and apps to improve creativity and productivity. You can watch the replay via CrowdCast.
We also let 100+ attendees jump into the Miro board to add their own tools, ideas, and grab links during the session.
Next Steps:
Over the past several weeks The Learning Guild has been alternating between their Friday 2 pm Twitter Chat and a Zoom based event where a guest explains, dives deeper and answers chat questions on topics that were presented during online events this year. I was a guest and this is a summary of several of the topics we covered and wanted to provide a summary along with links. A video will be shared on YouTube later this month so keep an eye out if you missed the session today.
We covered a range of topics, ideas, tools, and resources so watch the video for everything. Download a PDF summary.
Growing up in a household of a teaching sparked a interest to always ask why, how, can I do it? So always be thinking about and breaking down what you do, why, how it works and what can you apply to your next learning experience? Tools that I use to keep up to date:
We got a question about using Snagit and Camtasia for creating, capturing, and building media. We use Snagit just about every day and Camtasia as needed, one thing I wanted to make sure you check out is their community support, blog, education (for registered users) via TechSmith Academy and resources. Make sure to follow Matt Pierce @piercemr on Twitter.
During the last part of the session, we invited 30+ attendees to experiment and add their thoughts around what they learned, what they wanted to share, and access to the resources. You can view the board and a gif below which shows the magic of 30+ people adding what they learned.
Download a PDF export of the board.
Check out the SpeakerChat Series on YouTube which features Mike Taylor, Sarah Mercier, Richard Goring and Carla Torgerson in the first series.
Please reach out to twitter.com/learningguild or @learningguild on Twitter to share your thoughts if they should continue the series. I VOTE YES and would love to see more interactions to continue and dive deeper into the latest community challenges, sharing ideas, and looking at how we can continue to grow.
Miro is one of those tools that gets me so excited about the possibilities and how it can help teams get stuff done because it works transparently, for the most part, and allows you to create, brainstorm, gather feedback or quickly collaborate on the next steps. The tool works via your browser or you can download an app for your desktop or mobile device. If you have an Apple Pencil, Surface Pen, or similar you can draw, annotate more naturally on screengrabs, elements, or just write some notes.
In the past 90 days Miro has launched several new features:
How I Use Miro:
This week launched a new MIROVERSE where you can share your templates with the community so that they can learn, get new ideas and personalize for your team.
Why are you still reading this? Jump over to Miro.com, sign up for a free account, and start to plan your team’s next collaboration session.
If you are looking for some more L+D content to absorb, learn, and get inspired check out Jacqueline Hutchinson‘s site discussing hot topics and several interviews covering sales, SME’s, PLNs, AI, and a whole lot more.
The Lounge Podcasts >
Emily Sheetz launched a new podcast L&D Forecast which is easy to listen to and provides a fresh perspective of what to consider and where to look in the world of learning. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and working with Emily for over 10 years now and have seen her grow into a master storyteller with a creative edge that helps an audience connect with her ideas.
Check out her podcasts and you can connect with Emily on LinkedIn. You can also view Emily’s writings on Medium. You can listen to Emily’s fun interview with me that went so fast I can’t wait to do it again.
Got a chance to listen to Karen Hyder on the #IDIODC CrowdCast. Karen has facilitated and assisted in developing The Learning Guilds online conferences and sessions. I’ve been lucky enough to have been coached by Karen over the years and appreciate all the tips, feedback, and guidance she has provided.
She shared the following tips:
Listen to all the DomainKnow #IDIODC casts hosted by Brent Schlenker and Chris Van Wingerden. They do a new cast every Tuesday for 30 minutes.
Learn more about Karen on KarenHyder.com.
If you haven’t heard of the TLDC community online, you should strongly consider joining them. They offer daily chats using CrowdCast where you can listen in, share, and contribute as well as a Slack channel to stay connected within the L+D community.
Once you join, you have access to all the live broadcasts or can access via podcast or video replay post-event if you could not join in live. It’s $150 per year or $15 per month. https://www.thetldc.com
Last week, Jo Cook of Lighbulb Moment was a featured guest (she was amazing + dynamic) and I summarized some of her key points shared:
Follow Jo on twitter @LightBulbJo and check out her web site.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Robert Iger shares his biography and experience of working at ABC and eventually leading Disney into its most successful 15 years acquiring Marvel, Lucas Films, and Pixar and launching Disney+ as well as the growths of the Disney Parks. After taking a step back towards retirement earlier this year has been asked to assist navigate through the current challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The book is written simply and walks through several challenges to eventually earning the role of CEO in 2005 until 2020 sharing stories good, bad, inspirational, and his relationship with his colleagues, managers, and even some insight into discussions with Steve Jobs.
One of my favorite shares, after becoming CEO most teams he worked with always thanked and directed attention to him directly and he always made it a point to share the limelight with everyone that was with him and made sure each person got a introduction which shows empathy, character and compassion.
He also shares several larger challenges, setbacks, and what we can learn, share, and apply within our teams to help us move forward.
I highly recommend reading or listening to the audiobook. You can learn more about the book on Amazon.
RISC has been curating content to help L+D professionals stay ahead of the curve and learn, expand and grow their knowledge-based from creating content, UX, designing for every screen, to how to conduct interviews to learning about AI just to name a few of the topics:
Check out at: sealworks.team/LearningCollective
I’ve watched and taken notes on sessions from JD, Kevin, Kristen, and Sarah’s so far. Join me for my live broadcast on Getting Started with Prototyping using Adobe XD, we’ll cover the basics to get you launched as well as share several resources and our favorite tips, tricks and plugins. May 20th at 10am ET.
You can watch the recorded presentation below.
Love the signs that you find while walking around Disney during their update and or expansions.