Best practices for content creators

Human Studio's authoring tools enable you to create customized learning experiences that are uniquely tailored to your audience and their learning objectives. As with any authoring program, creating 3D models in Human Studio is more of an art than a science; your options are endless, and you are the expert in what your learners need to know.

However, there are a few basic guidelines you can follow when creating and publishing 3D models that will ensure the learning experience is as effective, convenient, and valuable as possible for your learners:

1. Emphasize key details in your 3D model
2. Segment complex concepts into easy-to-digest units
3. Align text with corresponding visuals
4. Prompt the learner to interact in 3D
5. Test on a variety of screen sizes and device types

1. Emphasize key details in your 3D model.

★ Use the Anatomy Tree to isolate essential anatomy and hide non-essential anatomy. 

Related articles: What is the Anatomy Tree?, Use the Anatomy Tree to customize anatomical structures

★ Use Paint colors to emphasize primary structures and Paint effects to de-emphasize secondary structures.

Related article: Paint a model

★ Use labels and label descriptions to identify or describe key structures.

Related articles: How do labels work in the BioDigital Human?, Add a new label to my model, Edit a label in my model 

2. Segment complex concepts into easy-to-digest units.

★ Break up complex models into multi-chapter tours.

Related articles: What is a tour?, Create a tour, Edit a tour, Add chapters to a tour

Related tips:

• For anatomy, allocate one chapter for each region, system, or group of key concepts.
• For pathology, use tours to compare and contrast health anatomy with the disease state, or to show the progression of disease.

★ Minimize the number of labels in each chapter (we recommend 5 or fewer) to reduce visual clutter and help learners focus on only the most essential concepts.

★ Include an overview chapter at the beginning of your tour to introduce key structures and concepts that will be referenced throughout.

3. Align text with corresponding visuals.

★ When using labels to identify key structures, position the label tags as close as possible to their associated structures. This will help learners make mental connections and reduce the need for visual scanning.

Don't:

Do:

★ Embed models inline within related text, or in pop-up windows that don’t obscure related text.

Inline embed:

Pop-up embed:

★ Hyperlink text on the page to corresponding structures in the model.

4. Prompt the learner to interact in 3D.

★ Include an "Interact in 3D" prompt when you publish your model. This prompt will 1) provide a visual response when the learner hovers over the model to signal interactivity and 2) explicitly instruct them to interact.

Related article: 3D embed publishing settings

★ Use interactive labels, which use plus/minus  buttons, or "pins," to prompt the learner to click. When the pin is clicked, the model automatically zooms in to give the learner a better viewing angle.

Related articles: How do labels work in the BioDigital Human?, Add a new label to my model, Edit a label in my model

Related tips:

• Enable Make Pin Glow in your label’s Style settings to signal interactivity.
• Under Actions, set your label’s description to expand on click to provide the learner with more information about that structure on demand.  
• Give learners a better viewing angle by adjusting the zoom label options for select labels. Under Actions, switch from from Zoom to label structure to Zoom to fixed position and navigate to your desired position. (You can even test your new zoom setting by unchecking box next to Disable label zoom while editing and clicking on your updated label.)

★ Set the Getting Started Tutorial to auto-launch when you publish your model. This tutorial teaches the learner step by step how to interact with the model in 3D.

Related article: 3D embed publishing settings

5. Consider a variety of screen sizes and device types.

★ Be mindful of the size of your models and tours to ensure an optimal loading experience for learners who are using mobile devices or have slower internet connections. 

Related tips:

• Steer away from embedding the full body (i.e., Male or Female Complete Anatomy). Instead, embed specific regions or systems.
• Limit the length of your tours (we recommend 10 chapters or fewer) and hide non-essential anatomy.

★ Adjust the height and width in the Publish tool to preview the position of the model and labels in case you need to make updates before embedding.

Related article: Publish a 3D model

★ Test models in different browser sizes (e.g., laptop, wide-screen monitor) and devices (e.g., smartphone, tablet) to make sure the loading time, performance, and positioning of the model meet your needs.