Making the Best Impression with Visuals in eLearning

Due to the apparent tremendous rate at which technology is evolving and expanding, an increasing number of organizations are embracing and leveraging modern technology to their benefit. Over the last decade, eLearning has risen by leaps and bounds, thanks partly to the inclusion of visual design in eLearning courses by eLearning professionals. Since intuitive visuals in eLearning quickly capture and maintain learners’ attention, it may aid in improving user navigation, adding aesthetic appeal, increasing learner engagement, and increasing the chance of a course being completed satisfactorily.
These six graphic design techniques might assist you in maintaining the engagement and impact of your enhanced content over time.

Intuitive design quickly captures and maintains learners’ attention

1- Typeface & Color

If you’re building an eLearning course, colors and fonts may seem like minor aspects that shouldn’t be high on your priority list. However, they are essential. On the other hand, these seemingly trivial elements have a considerable impact. Your font and color selections may significantly affect your participants’ moods.

Your visual design strategy relies heavily on them. As well as making text easier to read, good typography also helps readers digest information, establishes visual order, and evokes feelings in them. Font characteristics like style, color, size, and spacing are often overlooked, yet they have a significant impact on the visual effects of your design.

When selecting fonts and text colors, you should keep the following aspects (also known as templates) in mind at all times:

• Create a font palette that is restricted, clean, and uncomplicated. This design will be greatly influenced by the mix of two font types.
• The font size should be large enough for your learners to easily see and understand the text. Even if you’re investigating anything unique, don’t play too much with the fascinating quotients of typefaces and text colors. Usually, the body copy is 14 to 16 pixels.
• Keep things as basic as possible. Maintain consistency with your color scheme and utilize colors that are complementary to one another.
• If you’re working with a certain brand, make sure to select colors that are connected with that business. Make the backdrop a lighter hue and the font a darker tone by contrasting them.

Ensure that you utilize color in a way that makes the content apparent since the delivery of information is the most important aspect of eLearning.

2- Make every image valuable

As you construct an eLearning course, you must put time and effort into the picture choosing process. Are you staying on topic? Is it consistent with the brand’s image? Does it assist learners to go one step closer to reaching their learning objectives?

When text is supplemented with pictures, learners pay more attention and retain more information. However, it is not a license to load every screen or page with images: Every photo you use should offer significance and help learners study more effectively.

To convey data, use charts and graphs

You may keep decorative pictures to a minimum with a visually attractive design. Choose graphic components that complement and reinforce the meaning of the material, but avoid complicated images that raise the cognitive burden and distract learners without adding to the teaching. To convey data, use charts and graphs; columns and paragraphs full of numbers perform poorly in presenting a data story and are likely to put learners to sleep.

However, to improve the reach of your material, explain the patterns and points stated in the chart. Of course, give an alt text description with each image. Look for photos that demonstrate the diversity and capture the essence of your subject when illustrating your eLearning. Your eLearning designs should reflect the number of learners you have and the accessible, all-inclusive enterprise you represent.

3- Embrace the white space

Your eLearning screen should include a lot of white space. It’s not a good idea to fill in the white space with needless artwork or text. When your screen is free of distractions, your visual message is amplified. You can take advantage of whitespace in the following ways:

• Use more bulleted lists and shorter sentences.
• The use of white space between paragraphs and visuals helps keep readers’ attention.
• Use white space to draw attention to key components on the screen. That way, the most essential aspect will be highlighted.
• Please keep the text’s body between 25% and 40%.

Make sure your design is open and airy so that the most vital and significant information is easily accessible. Learners will be more engaged if you use space to organize or separate content bits that support distinct ideas.

4- Establish a distinct visual hierarchy

A visual hierarchy is created using similarly structured headers, colors, and layouts across a document. Choose heading styles that reinforce hierarchy, such as distinct size variances for various heading levels, and make headlines simple to read using consistent typefaces and boldface types. Bold or colorful writing and bigger objects on the page or screen will capture the viewer’s attention. Make your most critical content components stand out by using more prominent headings or graphics. Place items on the page to direct learners through the content logically, and they are easy to understand.

If you want to avoid confusion, keep your hierarchy within a page or screen to no more than two or three levels. As with the “whitespace” method, if you find yourself attempting to introduce more layers of content, decrease the quantity of content on the page – perhaps even moving less critical material to linked references instead of adding extensive detail in core instruction.

5- Create simple graphics

We’ve all been through a PowerPoint presentation that had too many intricate charts and graphs that no one understood. Each of these is far too prevalent in the corporate world. Put yourself in the learner’s shoes before you generate any graphics for your eLearning course. Consider the following: “If I am unfamiliar with this subject, what type of visualization might assist me in better understanding it?”
Consider the fundamentals and be straightforward—simple reasoning.

Keep your design as simple as you can

On paper, jot down a few thoughts. Choose your most fantastic concepts and bring them to reality. Uncertain whether your image is basic enough? Consider the five-second test. Show your photograph to a friend or coworker. Consider additional simplification if it takes longer than 5 seconds to comprehend. The learner will only allow you five seconds before moving on.

Finally, while making visuals, attempt to incorporate 2-3 of your “template” colors into the first suggestion. This will assist in the creation of a clean, consistent interface that integrates easily with the remainder of your eLearning course.

6- Questions and exercises

Towards the end of each eLearning course, it is advised that interactive questions or games be included to recap the lesson and assess the amount of comprehension achieved by the learners. Incorporating interactive features into your course is a straightforward yet effective method to improve the quality of your curriculum. Modern eLearning software includes:

• Multiple-choice or short essay templates.
• Flip-flop exercises.
• Placement assignments in practically every version available.

So, you can quickly insert and change any question to suit your requirements without difficulty.

Make sure your interactive features are in keeping with your brand’s aesthetic and color palette. Furthermore, you may transform an eLearning course into a compelling, unforgettable experience – a great approach to motivate and inspire learners in eLearning courses.

Conclusion

It is undeniable that visuals in eLearning will make eLearning a more meaningful and memorable experience for your learners.

More than anything, you must keep in mind that the visual style of your eLearning course should not be the primary focus of the course content. It should not divert participants’ attention away from what is genuinely vital. In truth, visual design is underappreciated in many ways.

Although it is required to elicit emotional responses from learners and make them feel fully involved in the eLearning experience, it must do so from behind the scenes. Make sure that every visual design element you incorporate flows easily with the others and appropriately represents the course’s overall theme and mood.

Make your eLearning course stand out from the crowd and be memorable for learners by following these graphic design guidelines. It’s important to remember that an eLearning course is considered successful only if participants can retain the information and apply it effectively beyond the virtual classroom. To acquire the most effective and standard design assistance for your eLearning, contact Groove Technology.