Welcome to DesignLab, my name is Casey and in
this video I will show you how to access Sway and start building your exhibition. Then I'll
work on an example Sway so that you can see how the design principles you learned about in the
first video can be put to use. In the first video, we learned about using CAT and CRAP to
create effective designs. Let's do a quick recap. CAT reminds us to keep conceptual,
aesthetic, and technical considerations in mind as we develop a design project. Think about
your audience and what you're trying to achieve. When you have a clear idea of your
goals, you can use the CRAP tool box to develop a coherent and compelling aesthetic
for your work. Design also requires attention to technical issues like choosing the
right tool, using it well, and ensuring accessibility of your design. Let's see how
these principles play out in Sway! As students, you can access the online application through
your Office 365 Wisc account. To get started, click on New Blank Sway. There are three primary
sections of the Sway workspace. Storyline, design, and play. Storyline is where you add
media to your Sway. Type directly into text boxes, drag and drop images into media fields. Click
the green plus sign to start a new section. Design is where you set the style of your
Sway, including layout, palette, font choices, and animation. Within layout, you have three
options: vertical, horizontal, and slides. This Sway is currently an example of horizontal,
but I'll be switching between them at various times. In styles and palettes, we recommend a
few quick tips to get started. Choose a palette style that uses black body text in contrast to
chosen accent color for greatest legibility. We also recommend customizing your palette,
as the curated options are auto-generated and may not fit with your imagery. You can type
in a hex code or, if you upload a photo, it will suggest colors. Next, choose your font. Avoid
overly decorative fonts for improved legibility. We also recommend keeping your
text size set to the normal option. Turn animation emphasis to "subtle." You'll see
why this is later in the demonstration. Click "play" in the upper right corner to preview
progress on your Sway. Now that we've gone through the three main sections of Sway, let's
go into a little bit more detail beginning with your card options. Every individual
element added to a Sway is called a "card" and there are four types of cards: title, text,
media, and group. The title card appears at the top of your presentation and is the largest
card. You can also add a background image or logo to the title banner. Next is "text." You
can add three kinds of text to a Sway: heading 1, which are primary headings, heading 2, which are
secondary headings, and text, which is body text. All text cards may be edited in the following
ways: emphasize, which is akin to bold, accent, which is their way of saying
italicize, bullet point lists, and number list. You can adjust the size and style of the text
card by editing emphasis. "Subtle" gives you a smaller option. "Moderate" gives you a more medium
width. There are four types of media that you can add to a Sway: image, video, audio, and a link.
Upload from your device, OneDrive, or online. Within Sway, you can filter your online search to
"creative commons only," but you are responsible for verifying permissions and copyright.
Always cite your sources. You can also record your own audio within Sway, but the audio file
cannot be extracted from the Sway for editing. If you want to embed interactive elements like
forms, documents, audio clips, Google maps, and more from sources like Microsoft Forms,
Sharepoint, and SoundCloud, as well as Sway itself, you just need to get an embedded link
and enter it into the box. The group type card is used for nesting media and designates how the
media will appear. There are five types of groups. Using emphasis, you can semi control alignment
by adjusting emphasis of the media from subtle, small, moderate, medium, to
intense, which is full screen. Using focus point, with image media only, you
can also adjust the crop by setting focus points. If you do not want the image to crop, check
mark the box "the entire image is important." The grid grouping is good for
displaying image typologies, but it does require an even number to fill out the
grid. Similar to "automatic," you have the option for emphasis and focus point. In grid grouping,
sizing emphasis is applied to the entire group. Grid grouping focus point autocrops your
images to display them as a uniform matrix. You can override default grid settings by
adjusting focus points for individual images. The next grouping type is comparison. Only
two images may be used for comparison grouping and a slider appears along the center axis
of the image frame, allowing you to hide and reveal either image. In comparison grouping,
sizing emphasis applies to the entire group, while focus points may be set individually. In
stack grouping, you can include any number of images and they will maintain their original
aspect ratio. They appear in a pile that you may flip through by clicking on the stack. Sizing
emphasis applies to the entire group, while focus points may be set individually. And finally,
you have the option to use slideshow grouping. You can include any number of images in slideshow,
which will appear in a horizontal slide format that you can advance by clicking the right and
left arrows. Sizing emphasis applies to the entire group, while focus points may be set individually.
And finally, the most important part: sharing your Sway. Share your Sway with a link that others
can view or edit or get an embedded link. You can share with specific groups or people,
this allows you to send an email inviting specific people to view and or edit your Sway site. Only
those with a link will be able to access it. You can also share it with people in your
organization, so only people who have wisc.edu emails will be able to view your Sway site. Or you
can make the link available to anyone, which is open to the public. If you're working in groups,
whoever creates the Sway site is the owner, but others can edit it by selecting the edit
option next to "invite people to." Finally, I would like to direct you to our website, where you
can find more resources under "software support," "Sway," and then "DesignLab Sway on Sway," which
is a Sway project that we have created in order to provide you with easy instructions. Don't forget,
DesignLab is here to help you with your project. Due to the pandemic, we have suspended all
in-person appointments, but we are still offering appointments via video calls. You can
make an appointment from the DesignLab website by clicking the pink "make an appointment" button.
You can also start a chat with us using our new chat service, which is open anytime DesignLab
is open. From anywhere on the DesignLab website, click "chat with DesignLab" in the main
menu. We look forward to working with you!
