Introduction
The Amazon Safety Operations Annual Refresher (SOAR) is a comprehensive Workplace Healthy & Safety training initiative, reaching around 50,000 employees annually. The program’s safety topic courses are tailored to many employee levels, from associates to regional managers, at Amazon’s warehouses and fulfillment centers.
My role
As the design lead for the SOAR series, I managed the overall design timeline across two distinct business units and delivered graphics for 23 courses in just seven months. I established the courses' look and feel and distributed tasks between myself and another designer. I also collaborated closely with stakeholders throughout the process to ensure strategic goal alignment and the seamless execution of all visual and written components
Design Process
My process started with an in-depth audit of all course content to evaluate:
- Alignment with stakeholder goals and requests
- Subject material accuracy
- Stylistic consistency
- Efficiency and clarity of content delivery
- User and audience experience
- Subject material accuracy
- Stylistic consistency
- Efficiency and clarity of content delivery
- User and audience experience
Course content reviews
The first step in developing all course graphics was an in-depth review of the course content. During my review, I asked detailed questions about the course itself, the physical environment in which the scenarios took place, and the equipment being used. This collaborative effort between myself and the Instructional Designer proved to be pivotal to overall course development as it reduced errors, ensured subject material accuracy, and visual alignment between graphics and course content.
Back-and-forth conversations about the course content itself ensured seamless execution of course visuals
Work plan
Once all preliminary questions were answered, I created a detailed work plan, identifying the scope of work and varying levels of creative effort required for all necessary course components.
Partial workplan
Working off of this project plan, my team hit the ground running on creating the many visual assets needed for all 23 courses, including characters, warehouse and store interiors, building exteriors, equipment, and more, to provide a rich visual context for our audience. As an integral part of the plan, I scheduled regular syncs within the design team, and with instructional designers to ensure visual consistency, style guide alignment, and content quality, while maintaining momentum to meet all of our deadlines.
Final deliverables
The final deliverables for each course included a comprehensive reference document featuring thumbnails of each slide to illustrate text placement, UI elements, sample learner interactions, and the sequence of slides. This document was paired with high-quality graphics that both elevated the learning experience and adhered to Amazon's Workplace Health & Safety style guide. This package ensured a unified visual experience across all courses within the SOAR series.
Sample thumbnails from one of 23 courses completed as part of this project.
Work samples are limited due to NDA.
Work samples are limited due to NDA.
Results and key learnings
My design leadership and project management success for the SOAR series led to my process being adopted as the standard practice for all future graphics development within Amazon’s Workplace Health & Safety learning development team. My contributions were pivotal in coordinating the efforts of the design team, ensuring timely delivery, and maintaining high-quality standards throughout the project lifecycle.
Our work received a lot of positive feedback from collaborating teams, stakeholders, and Amazonians taking the course. The Instructional Design team was very pleased not only with the improved quality of course graphics, but also with the reference document which expedited course development. Since launch, the series has been positively received by both managers and associates across North America.
Overall, this project underscored the importance of a thorough understanding of course content in the creation of effective visual aids. It highlighted the role of visual design in enhancing educational outcomes, and also demonstrated the value of bridging the gap between graphic creation and instructional content.
