Type: Course capstone interaction · Role: Instructional Designer / Developer · Tools: Articulate Storyline, JavaScript

Overview An interactive calculator built into a course explaining a newly launched company bonus program — letting employees model their own potential bonus before the program went live.

The Problem When I joined the project, the program details and the math behind bonus eligibility were buried in dense accounting language that the general employee population couldn't reasonably parse. Rolling out a compensation change people don't understand invites confusion, mistrust, and a flood of questions — exactly what the business wanted to avoid at launch.

Constraints The source material was highly technical and owned by finance, so accuracy was non-negotiable — every calculation had to match how the company actually determined bonuses. And because the course was launching ahead of the program itself, it had to build understanding of something employees couldn't yet see in the real world.

My Role & Process I partnered directly with the CFO and accounting VPs to translate the eligibility rules and bonus math into plain language. I broke the logic down, then built scenarios using different metrics so learners could see how the pieces interact. As the capstone, I developed a working calculator in JavaScript within Storyline.

The Solution A calculator where an employee inputs their anticipated gross earnings, how many goals their location achieved, and their location's projected earnings, and sees their potential bonus. It turned an opaque, accounting-heavy policy into something each person could explore for themselves and connect to their own situation.

Results Because the course — and the calculator — reached employees before the program launched, the rollout went smoothly with very little confusion about how bonuses worked.