A lot of eLearning would look better if it looked like CRAP. No, I’m not saying it should look baaaaad – I’m saying you should use the four overarching principles of visual design: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity. Why? People form opinions about your eLearning very quickly, and that goes for eLearning visual design as well.
- Part 1
- Part 2
If your eLearning visual design is in need of an upgrade, the C.R.A.P. principles that Robin Williams describes in her terrific book, The Non-Designer’s Design Book, might help you move learners’ opinions in a more positive direction. Funny acronym (that so many of you made great jokes about on Twitter after reading Part 1). Good results.
As I said last time, I’m not a visual designer by training. But I’m a great reader, listener, and mimic. And I know how critical visual design is to what we do. The purpose behind these design principles is to make what people see in front of them aesthetically pleasing. If what we deliver looks bad, it forms a bad impression. If it forms a bad impression, learners instinctively don’t like it. If they don’t like it, learning is negatively impacted. Perception is reality. Unfair maybe, but them’s the breaks.
I’m an instructional designer, so my explanations in this article are trainer or instructional-designer oriented. If you’re a graphic designer and want to add to these explanations, please feel free to add comments and links in the comments area following the article!
I discussed Contrast and Repetition (the C. and R. in C. R. A. P.) in last month’s article. Now it’s time to tackle Alignment and Repetition.
Alignment
Alignment involves how you place items, text as well as graphics, on the page. Rookie designers often dump things on the page, fall where they may. Professional designers intentionally align items with each other, in relationship to each other.
Look at any screen or Web page. Where do your eyes fall? Do they jump around to different elements or do they move in a logical order? Ideally, your eyes move in a logical order. This exercise gives you a sense of whether the designer threw the screen together or designed it.
Robin Williams explains that, ideally, items on the page should feel like they are connected in your mind via an invisible line. Figure 1 shows the items on a screen before alignment and Figure 2 shows those same items after alignment with each other.
http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/727/?utm_campaign=lsmag&utm_medium=some&utm_source=linkedin
Related Instructional Design Information:
http://mcdonaldsalesandmarketing.biz/category/instructional-design/
http://mcdonaldsalesandmarketing.biz/category/how-to-transfer-training-learning/
http://mcdonaldsalesandmarketing.biz/personal-learning-environments-ples/
