The most efficient way to achieve consistency in the visual design of eLearning and presentation slides is to create a visual style guide. A style guide provides one graphical standard for everyone. … [Read more...]
How Visual Clarity Affects Learning
Research on Processing Fluency
How do you react when you see a very complex diagram or a screen of dense text? Are you motivated to work through it? Or do you groan and turn away if it becomes too difficult? Processing Fluency If … [Read more...]
The Visual Design of Checklists
In a previous article, I wrote about the benefits of using checklists for performance support. But how might you design a checklist that fits your needs? Consider that the visual design of a cognitive … [Read more...]
Use Visual Cues To Enhance Learning
When you design or create an informative graphic, do you help the viewer quickly understand it? Do you purposefully direct the viewers' eyes to the elements that are most meaningful? If you don't, … [Read more...]
5 Steps To A PowerPoint Redesign
PowerPoint slides are often the currency exchanged between subject matter experts and instructional designers and developers. The slides are almost guaranteed to come with a poor design. You will … [Read more...]
How to Improve Your Visual Design Skills
(for Learning Professionals)
As a learning professional, if you haven't focused on or studied visual design it may seem like a mysterious process. How can you ever improve when you don't understand what it entails? I teach visual … [Read more...]
How To Design A Quick Reference Card
A Case Study
You've probably used a quick reference card or sheet for easy access to a condensed set of information, like grammar rules, foreign language expressions, software functions and similar types of … [Read more...]
8 Ways To Choose A Color Palette For eLearning
One of the most frustrating aspects of designing an eLearning course is choosing the color palette. The color palette refers to the limited and predefined set of colors you use in a design. If we … [Read more...]
How To Plan A Photo Shoot For eLearning
Organizing and managing a successful photo shoot for eLearning is more complicated than you might think. You have to organize by location, have the right props on hand, keep things moving at a steady … [Read more...]
How to Crop Photos for eLearning
Cropping an image is a powerful technique of visual design that you may be under utilizing. It's more than just making a photograph fit your space. Cropping refers to the practice of removing portions … [Read more...]
Realistic Graphics and Learning: What’s most effective?
Before you just place any old photo into an online course or informational web site, it's a good idea to think about whether a realistic graphic will be effective. And if so, how much realism is … [Read more...]
What Learning Professionals Should Know About Color
Do your graphic designers speak in a secret language? Do you wish you could let terms like hue, saturation and value roll off your tongue? … [Read more...]