Interactive Demos In ServiceNow's Knowledge Base

[lisa slavin]

In the discussion, Videos in the ServiceNow KB, servicenowkevin shared the benefits of using video in knowledge articles, "there are times when seeing a process done makes it easier to understand."

Another instructional resource I have added to internal knowledge articles that "show the process" are interactive demos. These demos compliment the written instructions because the reader is able to click through each step in the process and see the results.

We have received lots of great feedback from our readers about these interactive demos. Readers find this on the job training efficient and effective to learning new processes.  

The interactive demos are published in Articulate Storyline, an eLearning authoring tool, and are then embedded or hyperlinked in the article.

Benefits of interactive demos:

• Reduce consumer learning curve and adoption rate.
• Increase consumer confidence to execute the process on the their own.
• Familiarize the consumer with the user interface of their working environment.
• Provide the consumer just in time training for reinforcement.

How to get interactive demos into the Knowledge Base:

1. Write the knowledge article in which the demo will live, including the written process steps.
2. Create the interactive demo. There are many instructional or eLearning authoring tools on the market, I use Articulate Storyline.
3. Publish the demo according to the authoring tool's best practice guidelines.
4. Upload the published demo files to a cloud hosting service, for example AWS.
5. Review the authoring tool's guidelines to learn which of the published files is the source you need to point to.

To embed the demo directly in a knowledge article:

1. In the knowledge article, click the HTML view button in the wysiwig.
2. Place the cursor where you want the video to appear in the code.
3. Paste the embed code between iframes:
   <iframe width="620" height="300" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" align="bottom" src="https://folder.s3.amazonaws.com/filename/story.html"></iframe>

To hyperlink to the demo in a new window:

1. In the knowledge article, highlight the text or the image you want to hyperlink to.
2. Click the hyperlink button in the wysiwig.
3. Point the url to the appropriate source file.

For an example of the final product, please visit KB0540122.

I encourage you to explore new opportunities to present process content that is instructionally engaging and visually appealing.