I've been using Captivate 2018 and 2019 for over a year now. Our company develops software, and we have a critical need to move our old ILT to scalable, self-paced e-learning as fast as possible. I was a software developer before moving into training and instructional design 12 years ago. I work in a distributed team of 7 people spread across North America. And we use Agile development techniques, which means we're not strictly one person working on one Captivate project. Lastly, our company uses Macs, so we us Captivate on macOS.
We also use Lucidchart. A lot.
I've ground my teeth at how bad Captivate is on macOS. But, as a software developer from way back, I understand Adobe have codebase that started life 20 years ago when creative users worked alone, on a PC, and shared completed work on a network drive.
That world does not exist now.
We use Kanban principles where a free ID works on a prioritized list of e-learning projects. We need to collaborate on the same project, at the same time: for reviews, prototyping etc. Good luck having that same Captivate project stored in GDrive and open at the same time.
Flash is soon dead. SVG has been around for years. So has HTML5 animations.
Lucidchart has proved just how good a graphics app in the cloud can be. Flexitive and other apps prove that time-line based HTML5 animation is not only doable but fast, and easy to use. With the exception of some asset acquisition tasks (see below) an HTML5 Captivate experience would be leaner, faster, more team-oriented, and easier to maintain than the current native app solution.
Adobe, please create a first class Cloud-first Captivate SaaS solution for the 21st Century.
Why is it I can't design, develop, review, gather feedback comments, and publish SCORM or xAPI, all cloud first?
Already many aspects of the native Captivate can be done with HTML5 in a browser: Audio recording, for instance. However, There are still some things that need native Captivate apps, and those can be offered along side the core Captivate SaaS product. Think of these as asset acquisition apps: a Screen recording app for capturing Demos and Interactions, for instance.
The good thing for us and Adobe, is the app-ificaiton of software means it's easy to maintain a suite of OS specific, single-task apps than a monolithic 20 year old code base that has to be ported between Windows and Mac. Plus, with the advent of OS app stores, these asset acquisition apps will be more portable (Windows App Store apps, and Apple "Marzipan" apps starting this year).
If Adobe offered a modern, cloud-first, team-oriented, Captivate in the Cloud solution, I know my company would sign-up in a heart beat. Training and Development has never been a one person at their PC pursuit. We all have stake holders, and many of them are not in the same timezone as the ID.
Please, Adobe. Because if you don't, then the first company that does will get our business.
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