Role: Project design, content development, learning experience design, multimedia design, video editing, motion graphics.
Team: Cisco Secure Customer Enablement team
Tools: Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Microsoft Office, Miro, Skilljar, Snagit, WellSaid
Timeline: July 2023 - August 2023
The SSL policy is one of the primary functions of Cisco Secure Firewall, allowing users to gain visibility into encrypted traffic on their network. Navigating setting up the feature, however, was difficult. As part of an effort to produce onboarding content for first-time users of Cisco Secure Firewall, I was tasked with creating an introductory microlearning course with the basics of the SSL policy.
Below, I walk through my process for the project using the ADDIE model.
I started my research by collecting resources on the SSL policy, including existing documentation, configuration guides, and marketing materials. I also used a demo environment of Cisco Secure Firewall to investigate and learn more about the feature from the customers’ perspective in-product.
I conducted a subject-matter expert (SME) interview with Cisco Solutions Architect who specialized in Cisco Secure Firewall to better understand the feature and uncover any information currently missing from existing customer-facing enablement content. Since the Solutions Architect regularly interacted with Cisco Secure Firewall customers, he was able to explain common customer pain points with the SSL policy he observed along with the advice he often recommended to these customers.
I drafted a course outline and script using the information I gathered during my research.
I decided to include a step-by-step demo environment walkthrough video, which would help customers visualize and understand exactly how to set up the SSL policy within the product. I storyboarded each scene of the walkthrough video with a script, instructions for what to include in the screen recording, and notes of what to highlight using motion graphics in post-production.
I wanted this course to be accessible to customers with varying levels of cybersecurity proficiency, so I created introductory modules explaining the basics of SSL and decryption, how the concepts work together in the SSL policy, and why the SSL policy matters. I made sure to make these text-based and infographic-based modules optional for completing the course. By configuring the course modules this way, customers who already understood the SSL policy could skip directly to the step-by-step configuration modules. Less experienced customers, on the other hand, still had the option to learn all about the SSL policy before moving on to the tutorial.
I also incorporated the SME’s advice into a best practices module and linked relevant resources at the end of the course for further learning.
I finalized the course script and storyboard after multiple rounds of peer reviews, copy edits, and SME feedback.
For the walkthrough video, I used Snagit to perform a screen recording of the Cisco Secure Firewall demo environment. Then, I used WellSaid to generate the voiceover for the video from the video script. I imported both the voiceover audio and the screen recordings into Adobe Premiere Pro, where I edited down the videos and aligned the voiceover with the corresponding screen recordings.
I then imported my video into Adobe After Effects. I animated motion graphics to highlight relevant menus, buttons, and windows within the demo environment. I also added transition animations between scenes, as well as an opening and closing animation.
I also created both a video transcript and a descriptive transcript to go along with the video for accessibility purposes.
A multimedia designer on the team created the visuals and infographics to accompany the text-based modules.
I built out the final course using Skilljar and published it to the Cisco Security Academy, the customer enablement platform for Cisco Secure products.
This course is scheduled to be evaluated one year after its initial publish date.
A demonstrated need should drive learning experiences
Although I was assigned to build this introductory course for the SSL policy, I had no access to user data or feedback regarding the feature. I had no idea what the customer pain points actually were until the SME told me about his own experience working with struggling customers. Only then was I able to strategically decide what content to include and why, ultimately resulting in a successful course. Having access to this insight allows me to keep the learner at the forefront of the content development process.
