Imagine a fully immersive virtual environment created for a safety training product, for example. If this environment is presented to the learner using techniques similar to those used to create a game’s 3D environment, would they not find the experience closer to the real situation and would it not leave a more lasting impression?

To further examine the safety example we can look at a situation where the learner is being trained in how to work safely on the roof of a building. The learner would view the location from a first-person perspective and would be able to move freely around the roof, study the environment and identify potential hazards. Using ambient sounds and effects would add more realism to the experience and allow the inclusion of aural hazards, such as sounds of machinery or nesting birds on the roof. The learner would be guided along by an artificially intelligent trainer, in the form of a 3D character, who would not only respond to questions but also react to the learner’s behaviour within the training environment. For example, the learner should not approach closer than two metres to the ungraded edge of the roof; if they did the trainer would call out with a warning then proceed to give an explanation of the correct regulation once they had the learner’s attention.

Recently there have been vast advancements in computer and video games but at the same time these advancements have, by their nature, made the games more complicated. This has created a new hurdle for game designers - how to provide guidance for a new player that is enjoyable and involving enough to keep them interested in playing the rest of the game.

Previously, when game tutorials were first introduced, they were often bolted on as separate modules to the actual game itself; they were basic and often tedious. A player was given the option to play through the tutorial or to skip it completely and start playing the game straight away. For seasoned game players skipping the tutorial was not a major issue but for more casual players this often resulted in them finding the game too daunting and not understanding how to progress, causing them to lose interest.

The solution developers came up with in more recent games was to integrate the tutorial directly into the game which also served as an interactive introduction. This new form of tutorial was designed to integrate in such a way as to make the new player unaware that they were even being taken through a tutorial. It was a gentle and more immersive start to the game which guided the user into understanding how to play the game without detaching them from the game itself. Using in-game interaction to guide the user through the basics made the learning process more effective as well as more enjoyable.

Learning new information is always easier when it is presented in an interactive and fun format; therefore modern e-learning courses tend to look more like computer games than training manuals. If the ultimate goal of an e-learning product is to leave the learner with a full understanding of the subject and for the information to be memorable, isn’t developing more realistic and immersive learning environments and experiences a natural evolution for the future of e-learning?

Please share your views on the subject. What else can e-learning designers learn from game designers and what dangers might occur from making an e-learning course more like a computer game?

Design work for a new client can be exciting and difficult at the same time. The novelty of working with a new brand and identity comes hand in hand with the challenge of unfamiliar ground. We’ve found the steps below really worthwhile at the start of the design process for a new client, so read on for our top tips for success!

1. Get to know them
It is crucial, before deciding on the approach for a specific project, to get to know the client’s ‘world’. Ask them to provide all the material they have got about their company brand and identity. Any brand guidelines or libraries are obviously fundamental. Also don’t forget to ask for any custom font and brand elements - at the highest possible quality.

2. Do your research
After you have analysed the client material, do some extra internet investigation. Take a look at the company website and see if there are any other country versions. See what images or webpages appear when typing the client’s name in Google. It can also often be really interesting and worthwhile to take a look at their direct competitors’ websites.

3. Hold a discovery meeting
Now you’re ready to meet the client! Hold a workshop to gather any extra information you need and get to grips with the client’s needs and project objectives. Come prepared with a list of questions, listen to what they have to say and don’t hesitate to ask about anything else that comes to mind. This is your chance to discover whatever you need to know.

4. Don’t start too soon
Before cracking on with the design work, you need to do a bit more computerless thinking. Organise a discussion with the key stakeholders to share information and ideas - about the requirements, goals, challenges and technical boundaries. At this point, you should be able to use this to finally agree the field of action your design will tackle.

5. Remember, your client is your partner
It’s design time! From this point on the client is your closer partner. Set up regular checkpoints to show them progress; it doesn’t matter whether it is ‘presentable’ and ‘polished’ or not. Involving them and making them feel part of the process will set up the trust and participation that is needed for the success of the project and for any further collaboration.

Download our top ten tips for creating a look and feel for a new client

It may sound harsh to say that the best thing about X Factor is the ad breaks, but that’s the conclusion I’ve started to reach recently. To be fair, it hasn’t just been Jedward’s tuneless pogoing or the stress of Deadlock that has me urging on the commercials, but rather the innovative ‘brightdancing’ spots for TalkTalk which bookend the ad breaks.

If somehow you’ve avoided X Factor this year or to your dubious delight were gifted tickets to see X Factor live and haven’t seen these spots, they’re short, (mostly) viewer-made videos in which people make colourful neon shapes in the air by dancing around with their mobiles. You can see them here. All you need to make one of these videos is a PC with a webcam, a darkened room, and a small light source such as the screen of a mobile phone or a torch. When linked to the site, the webcam will record a video of you moving about with the light, and will add glowing neon trails to the path of the movement. This allows you to effectively use the light as a pen, tracing shapes that on the webcam video seem to magically hang in the air around you. When you’ve created a video you can upload it to the site, and wait with baited breath to see if it appears in the adverts next weekend!

This is a great advertising gimmick, and also highlights the power of user generated content. Apart from that, however, this promo also showcases a great new piece of technology that could have interesting implications for interactive design and maybe e-learning in particular. The brightdancing effect can be achieved using the latest versions of Flash and its 3D rendering add-on Papervision. Flash can now take a webcam feed and recognise specific shapes or colours within the image. It can then track those points as they move around. It’s clever stuff, and has at least two big areas of potential that I can see:

• Gestural control - Using webcams to pick up body movements could well be the next step in gestural control interfaces (http://www.saffroninteractive.com/2009/blog/show-your-mouse-the-finger/). This is the idea behind Microsoft’s ‘Project Natal’ - an extension of the Xbox which dispenses with controllers entirely.
• Augmented reality - While virtual reality sought to replace the real world with a fully immersive computer generated world, augmented reality seeks to enhance the real world by augmenting it with virtual elements. For example, imagine arriving at an unfamiliar street and holding up your camera phone as if to take a picture of it, with the phone’s screen acting as a viewfinder. Now imagine if that view of the street was overlaid with virtual markers and arrows showing you information about what’s on the street, such as the nearest cash machine or tube station, the bar where you’ve agreed to meet your friends, or shops that currently have sales on. Any virtual information that exists about a place can be melded with the real world space. This could apply to objects too: imagine being in a supermarket, pointing your phone at a box of cereal on the shelf and immediately seeing a warning that you’re allergic to one of its ingredients, that it can be bought 50p cheaper at the shop round the corner, or even that you already bought a box last week so you probably don’t need it.

From a training point of view this type of technology has enormous potential for on-the-spot learning. Let’s say you’re an engineer who services boilers. You get to a house one day to find a very old and unusual type of boiler that you don’t know much about. Instead of having to remember training you did 15 years ago, or calling back to the office for more information, imagine if you could hold up your mobile device to the boiler and instantly bring up its specification, a safety checklist to follow for that model, indicators showing which screws you need to loosen to get access, and which parts most commonly need replacing (along with their order number and stock availability). You could have the thing fixed before you’d even finished your first cup of tea!

At the moment these scenarios are all imagined, but the truth is it won’t be long before you start seeing this kind of thing for real. This technology may be in its infancy, but it does exist and it’s just waiting for developers to start finding uses for it. Those TalkTalk ads are just the glowing neon tip of the iceberg.

Creating original graphics for an e-learning course can be a challenging task, particularly when anything that’s created has to comply with strict branding guidelines. An engaging graphic environment is essential for an interesting and successful learning experience. Read on for our top five tips for achieving this.

1. Work on the concept
A strong concept is a must for any design. An interesting theme that runs throughout the course can help keep learners focused and engaged in the content. While the idea should be based around the subject matter, using metaphors and indirect associations can often provide the most attention grabbing results.

2. Explore different technologies
Advances in technology have created new opportunities in every field of design, including e-learning. Subscribe to blogs, magazines and training websites like www.lynda.com to make sure you stay up to date with new software and techniques. If the budget is tight, using free software like Google SketchUp can help add new elements to your work.

3. Never stop experimenting
It is easy to get comfortable with a proven style or concept that you know has always worked in the past. Attempting something new might not always be as successful as your proven techniques but exploring new creative methods can lead to improved and more exciting graphic solutions.

4. Do not decorate - communicate
Each visual element should serve a purpose - it should help to communicate the message (the content of the course) and contribute to the overall design concept. Check your work carefully to ensure there are no elements that serve a purely decorative purpose as they can be distracting for the learner.

5. Make it unique
While stock photography can be useful, relying on it entirely can often result in dry and unoriginal work. Use your own photographs to assemble interesting compositions. Ask a colleague to be a model for a photo that can then be used as a reference for an illustration. Include scanned and hand drawn elements to add a personal touch to your work.

Download our top five tips for designing engaging graphics for e-learning

In 1999 director Steven Spielberg assembled a team of 15 of the world’s leading futurologists and scientists and tasked them with creating a plausible vision of what life would be like in the year 2054. The best ideas were picked and used in the film Minority Report.

If you’ve seen that film you’ll likely remember a number of cool futuristic gadgets and technologies that make up Spielberg’s future world - jetpacks, robots, hologram films - there’s a lot to look forward to in 2054.

However, we may not have to wait that long to experience what I personally thought was the most memorable of futuristic technologies in the film - the computer which Tom Cruise fully controls with his hands, grabbing windows and physically pushing them around the display in order to navigate through the information. You can watch a clip of it here.

This immersive interface seemed not only stylish, but also an intuitive and practical way to interact with the virtual assets of a computer. Not for futuristic Tom Cruise the clunky old interface of a mouse. In the future it seems there’ll be no more pointing and clicking and we won’t be using the proxy of a cursor to do our on-screen bidding. Instead we’ll be taking an altogether more hands on approach - using natural gestures of our hands and fingers to zoom round files.

For a film that is all about seeing the future, it seems Minority Report was suitably prescient, and of course interfaces like this are no longer purely science fiction. When Apple introduced multi-touch for the iPhone in 2007 we all moved a step closer to this kind of control. Although it’s on quite a small scale, the touch screen interface of the iPhone has removed cursors and buttons from the interaction and replaced them with simple finger controls. Flicks, taps, and twirls of the fingers on the screen can activate a myriad of controls, and lets users manipulate content in a way that comes naturally.

As well as Apple’s efforts, there’s been a general swell of touch screen technologies which progress gestural interfaces, and the last week has seen some significant technology releases in this area.

First, the Palm Pre - the so called ‘iPhone Killer’ - has been released in the UK, and picks up where the iPhone left off. In our office, Mariette is already the proud owner of one of these phones, and has been enthusiastic in showing off the touch screen controls. For the Pre, gestures are all important. Not only can applications be slid around screen, or even flicked off it if they are no longer needed, but gestural controls have also moved off the screen to areas where buttons once were. Pushing your finger over certain areas of the body of the phone reveals menus or applications on the screen. This makes using the phone very uncomplicated and tactile.

Secondly, Windows 7 has been launched with much fanfare. It seems that many improvements have been made over Vista, but there’s an interesting feature added to the operating system which hasn’t yet received much attention. A touch screen pack has been created which allows Windows to be run effectively on touch screen enabled PCs. This pack adds in a number of gestural controls which normal mouse users don’t have access to, such as flicking to scroll quickly through pages, zooming with a familiar pinch movement, and rotating objects by circling two fingers around each other. You can see examples here.

What this pack indicates is that big players like Microsoft are seriously planning for a future where touch screen and gesture controls are much more common. This raises questions about how desktop PCs will be designed and arranged in the future, and there’s already a great deal of thought going into this (see here for an example). For anyone designing user interfaces at the moment, however, I think there are more immediate considerations.

Even before PCs become completely gesture controlled, users are going to become familiar with and reliant on these simple movements to navigate through their virtual world, and traditional interfaces will begin to feel cumbersome in comparison. It already seems elaborate to point and click through something like a photo album on a PC, when the same can be done on a touch screen device with a flick of the finger. It’s the job of good interface designers to start trying to transition the simplicity and fluidity of these new gestural commands to the interfaces they are designing now, and not wait till we’re zooming round on jet packs in 2054.

XML can be a great tool when used correctly, but it does sometimes suffer from being a development buzzword. The trick to understanding how best to use XML is to remember that its focus is to provide an independent structure for a collection of data. What happens with that data is a problem for other programming languages that need to work with it.

1. Create a stylesheet
XML can be viewed in many different formats but creating a stylesheet is a great way to ensure that the data is displayed in a readable way. Using tools like Microsoft InfoPath it’s possible to create a customisable view that will allow users to make updates to your XML document using familiar form based controls like textboxes and dropdown menus.

2. Group data
When using elements that belong in a group it’s best to create an element to represent that group. For example, if you wanted to create an XML document to show information on a series of books, you would want to create an element labelled “books”, then create sub-elements within the group to hold the information on each specific book.

3. Use elements and attributes appropriately
When choosing between elements and attributes, try to remember that elements should be used to group or hold data and attributes should be used to store meta-information for a specific element. Also try to avoid starting any names in your document with the letters XML or any punctuation characters.

4. Ensure compatibility
There are various ways to encode XML, such as ASCII and ISO/IEC 8859, but to ensure greater compatibility it’s generally best to make sure your documents are saved encoded as UTF-8. You can usually see how your document is encoded by opening your XML document in a simple text editor and checking the encoding attribute on the first line.

5. Experiment with your software
You don’t always have to have expensive dedicated software to edit your XML documents correctly. Programs like Microsoft Word are capable of transforming an XML document directly into a familiar looking editable document that you can save onto your PC.

Download our top five tips for writing XML

We are all eager for fresh and creative ideas to make our courses innovative, effective and engaging for the end user. But we can’t simply rely on random activities, chance or some creative ‘greater providence’ though. It is actually a solid and well structured approach that we need in order to generate and flourish brilliant ideas.

The well known name given to this approach is ‘brainstorming’ (although some governmental organisations have recently concluded that the term is offensive to people with epilepsy, suggesting the alternative ‘mind shower’). Actually, none of the above sound particularly inviting for people like us immersed in the pouring London weather, but that’s another kettle of fish…

Behind the creative output there are several techniques and methods to explore, including brand new trends like ‘nominal group technique’, ‘group passing technique’ and ‘electronic brainstorming’, all of them with the aim of using a fun and energetic process to create a list of ideas to kick off a project. The preferred method will vary of course depending on the objective, the available time and the participants. Below is a run through of what I have found to be the most useful and effective for our specific aims: a process of illumination (you might describe it as ‘sunbathing’), dumping the old soggy ideas for the fresher brighter ones that will enlighten our projects. Hopefully my suggestions might add a little spice and improved effectiveness to your brainstorming process.

• The objective:

Define and agree the topic for which you will be generating ideas. It’s good practice to create a background memo and send it out with the invitation to the participants. This should contain the session name, objective, time, date, and place. Describe the objective in the form of a question, and give some example ideas and references you might have found. Send the note well in advance, so the participants can think about the subject matter beforehand and come to the discussion prepared. It’s important to gather all the possible information around the project in advance of the session, as gaps in knowledge and information appearing during the idea generation might interrupt the flow of fruitful creative juices.

• The group

Brainstorming works best in small groups. If a group gets too large, more than 10 people, it can be difficult to control and some attendees may not feel as comfortable participating. A facilitator or meeting lead should take responsibility for getting everyone involved in the process. It doesn’t need to be a creative mind but someone with strong meeting leadership skills. They will then be the point person to ensure ideas flow and to drive the process, while the others bring the wildest ideas to the surface. The lead might decide to set a time limit as having a ticking clock can help keep the ideas coming. It’s also sometimes recommended that managers and superiors don’t attend, as they may inhibit and reduce the generation of unusual ideas. But make sure the group does include one good representative for each branch of expertise the project involves. For instance, for our e-learning projects it is advisable to include at least an instructional designer, a developer and a designer. You never know who will put forward the final juicy idea, so don’t underestimate the benefit of having extra points of view, as an ‘outsider’ mind might provide the unique perspective you need.

• Putting pen to paper

All we need to brainstorm is a pad and pencil. Assign a person to write down all the ideas, thoughts and everything that comes to mind in order to produce a ‘mind map’ that can be easily seen by all of the attendees. Create the mind map starting with your core central concept and branching off the new ideas in different circles that connect to the central theme and to each others. All ideas and thoughts should be recorded; worry about trimming them down later. It’s important to reduce ‘dead air’ and to keep the ideas to freeflowing; do not self-censor or hesitate before offering an idea and keep writing - as the pen must be touching the page the entire time, wandering, doodling and sketching without fear.

• Achieving quality through quantity

So the goal is to express very quickly as many ideas as possible. A free flux of consciousness is what can help bring up your most brilliant ideas. The point is that the more ideas you generate, the greater the chance of producing an outstanding solution: throw out any and all ideas related to a project, leading eventually to one or a few that are worth taking further. At the end you should even push yourself the extra mile - once you think you’ve exhausted all of the possibilities, take a big breath, re-examine the ideas you have got and push the group to add a few more to the box.

• The ‘all ideas are good ideas’ rule

Another important rule that follows the previous one is that all ideas should be encouraged and no one should issue any criticism toward any idea presented, no matter how off base it may seem at the time. No negative comments are allowed; instead build on, extend or add to the ideas when the opportunity is given. This will help create a supportive environment and encourage every participant to take part in the process. By suspending judgment, and reserving criticism for a later stage, participants will feel free and comfortable to generate unusual and unique ideas.

An ‘ideas book’ might be a great tool to keep outside the actual sessions. You can decide to place it somewhere in your shared network and make it accessible to everyone as a place to log all the extra ideas might come to mind. This can be a powerful source for refining concepts and providing inspiration for new ones. It also gives participants some ‘soak time’ to think deeply and evolve ideas. The individuals aren’t that comfortable with the face to face sessions might find in it a great way to contribute.

• Walking on the wild side

To get that long succulent list of ideas, unusual perspectives and the suspension of assumptions are needed. This is certainly not the time to hold back and the purpose is to invite everyone to participate, to dismiss nothing. You might indeed find that the ideas that seemed initially to be risky, unrealistic and nonsensical turn out to be the best one at the end. For this reason, brainstorming can be a great way to boost morale among participants and help them to feel part of the process. Just using sticky notes, markers and flip charts in a creative way to gather suggestions might add new engaging platforms. Also changing the setting could be beneficial, so don’t hesitate to move your location to the park, for instance, or anywhere might seem more inspiring. Yes, even in London there are a bunch of friendly days, fresh air and green spaces for spreading the wings of your ideas.

• Fortune telling

Now that you have all the tea leaves in your cup of tea it is time for the divination and refinement of your objective. This is when you sort through your list of generated ideas, start finding connections between the ideas that are related and prioritise the most promising ones into a more finished list. If you have done a good session the shiny solution should magically appear at the top of your list and the future of your project will appear blooming and full of promise. If you feel you have got the right solution to move forward then agree a timescale and who’s responsible. After the session it is important to circulate notes and give feedback in order to spread a transparent and positive result. In doing that people feel their participation and efforts were worthwhile and have resulted in action; they will be then motivated and keen to contribute again.

Good luck - and let us know if these tips work for you, or your ideas for getting the creative juices flowing!

At Saffron, we are always excited by new technologies which can be used as tools to enhance learning and usability. One of the many interesting projects I am currently involved in is the development of a RIA (rich internet application) product, using Microsoft’s Silverlight platform.

In this project, I used Expression Blend to recreate a user interface, based on the original Photoshop graphics, which was then passed on to our developers. The great thing about Blend is that it automatically converts all graphics to XAML, without the need to write code manually. Learning to work in Blend wasn’t difficult thanks to the intuitive user interface with its sleek graphite color scheme and well-arranged layout. Despite being new to this software, I found it straightforward to use which allowed me to concentrate on design rather than spending time searching for the right functions.

In the first stage, the original PSD graphics had to be converted into XAML using Blend which was a smooth process thanks to its support for importing Photoshop and Illustrator files. However, the import was not able to preserve all Photoshop effects and I found the best results were produced when importing vector layers. Blend is able to convert PSD files to XAML code with the original layer structure and names still intact. Additionally, individual layers can be selected for import whilst ignoring others; the pre-import preview function proved to be very useful for this.

After creating the initial static images, the animations were added. Creating animations, such as button controls, was painless using button transition states in Blend, especially as there was no need to write any code. The animation process itself is slightly different from Flash – in Blend, the process works with a true timeline and keyframes are created automatically as the timeline playhead is moved and the object properties changed. This approach seemed slightly quicker than using tweens in Flash but it’s hard to imagine how a frame by frame animation would work in Blend.

When animating movement, Blend creates a movement path which can easily be edited, thus controlling the movement animation; I also found this slightly more flexible than motion tweens in Flash. Another asset that deserves a special mention is the gradient tool in Blend which allows you to create and refine values of gradients directly on the object by dragging the gradient end points, which is extremely convenient to use.

One of the notable features of Silverlight, as often mentioned by Microsoft, lies in the improved designer-developer cycle. This was clearly proven in our experience as we at Saffron had a tight deadline to achieve, and it enabled both designers and developers to work in parallel. Silverlight is undoubtedly worth considering when choosing a platform for RIA, but is it a good alternative to Flash for creating engaging e-learning content? In my opinion, Silverlight can be a very useful tool for e-learning, especially in the following cases:

• When project deadlines are very tight and the project involves making multiple changes to design. Silverlight’s superior designer-developer workflow and team collaboration support means reduced overall development time as designers and developers can work on applications simultaneously.
  
• When the project involves full screen or HD videos. Silverlight 3 supports hardware graphics acceleration. This can lower CPU usage considerably, which means HD videos can be played on older low spec computers.
  
• When the project involves 3D or complex animations. Silverlight’s support for 3D graphics and animation rendering is superior to Flash and provides smoother animation due to GPU acceleration capabilities and perspective 3D support. This website provides a number of examples of Flash verses Silverlight performance comparisons.

There are probably many other reasons to use Silverlight for creating engaging e-learning content that I’ve not mentioned here. Please share your experiences of working with Silverlight and Expression Blend in the comments box below.

If Adobe AIR is something new to you and you’re not familiar with what it has to offer, here are my top five reasons why AIR is great!

• It’s fast: Performance increases were a major objective for the release of Actionscript 3 and Adobe AIR takes full advantage of the new performance gains.
• It’s cross platform compatible: This means that you don’t have to get involved in any Mac vs PC debates, leaving you more time to spend on the actual application. (The latest version of AIR also supports Linux so everyone can enjoy using your application.)
• It’s beautiful: Flash has always been a favourite for designers because it is ideal for creating rich UIs and animations. It also handles audio and video with ease too.
• It’s re-usable: Actionscript 3 is at the core of the runtime so much of the development can be ported back to the browser at a later date if you need.
• It’s Ajax friendly: AIR uses the WebKit rendering engine (used in Safari) allowing it to handle a variety of existing web technologies (XHTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash and PDF).

If you want to find more AIR applications the best place to start is the Adobe AIR Marketplace. You might also like to try some other great AIR applications. Here are a few to get you started:

• Times Reader
• Kuler desktop
• LDBK Player
• To do mailer
• Pixus

As part of the development team at Saffron we see lots of new technologies and frameworks emerging on a weekly basis and it can sometimes be hard to pick out which of these new offerings will be the one that you want to experiment with next, but since the launch of the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) we’ve been itching for the right project to come along that will allow us to get our toes wet and create an application for the desktop. For us, that project was our Assessment Workbench tool that had recently been made available to download on our website.

The original version of the Workbench was designed to be editable using Microsoft InfoPath, and although this was fine for most of our clients, we now wanted to make the Workbench available as a free download and for this to work it made more sense for the Workbench to be editable without having to purchase any supporting software. So, after exploring our options, we decided to start working with AIR to create a desktop editor for the Workbench.

We began working on few application prototypes to try and work out some of the obstacles we knew we would face when creating the editor. Some of these challenges are listed below:

• Selecting an assessment package: From the start, we imagined that the editor would operate as a stand-alone application working outside of the actual assessment package. And to achieve this we needed a process for selecting a valid package located on the user’s PC. To do this we created a new file inside the assessment package with a custom file extension (.awkb). This file would be our handle into the assessment package allowing us to validate the package and find the relevant files needed to edit an assessment.
• Saving the package: Editing the original version of the Workbench was a little disorientating as there were various different files that needed to be updated for different sections of the tool and this was something we wanted to tackle with the new editor. We decided that rather than saving the various files individually it would better to save the changes as a package. We were also able update the LMS manifest files at the same time.
• Installing the editor: Our last obstacle to overcome was the install process. The initial prospect of having to download and install the runtime, then download and install the editor seemed a little longer than it needed to be for us. Thankfully there are a few install options available from Adobe when it comes to installing your application. We chose to use the badge-install method because it will check whether it needs to install the runtime before installing the application. In addition to this we also added a link to the homepage of the editor that allows you to download a fresh Workbench package to your PC so that you can create a new assessment whenever you want.

Now that we had a collection of prototypes ready and working, the final task was to start putting everything together into one finished application. If you are interested in seeing the finished product you can download the editor by registering on our Assessment Workbench homepage. And if you’ve not yet used AIR, come back next week to find out why I’m such a fan!