Visual Design Tips For Effective eLearning

Written by Charlotte Green, Guest Author

As the learning delivery and methods have evolved from traditional classroom training to eLearning, it is important and challenging for the instructional designer to ensure that course should not only be content meaty but also be visually appealing. As visuals are the first experience that the learner comes across, thus, has to be impressive and appealing.

The visual design also involves a user navigation experience that contributes to knowledge retention and learning experience and contributes to an increase in course completion rate. It is not necessary for you to know the designing tools to create an effective visually appealing course. Let us look at some of the vital aspects that can improve the aesthetic looks of online courses.

Optimal use of design elements: Balancing the use of various design elements will lead to a clear, legible design. Elements like the color scheme, lines, images, shape, texture, and space of the material presented can make or break the visual appeal. Adopting a minimalistic approach works most of the time unless you are very confident of using bright colors or it is the need of the content.

A simple layout and simple color scheme help in showcasing the content better. It not only helps the learner remain focussed but provides a soothing effect. Include the images that are most relevant as overloading will only clutter up the space. White spaces also play an important role while designing the content. It makes reading easier by presenting the content in a simple and elegant way.

Design that guides the learner: The course should be such that important points get noticed easily. By highlighting the important points by making them bold or by using specific colors will be easily remembered. The navigation through the course should also be simple and smooth that helps the learner to search the content easily and does not have to scroll through the complete course to learn the last module. 

The use of infographics like pop-ups, the process flow, etc. will be useful to make the module neater while guiding through every step of the process. At times, highlighting the don’ts and warnings leaves a positive impact. However, using them optimally along with white spaces will work wonders.

Start with a template: Designed by experts, templates are the most effective way to create an effective eLearning course for a beginner. The major highlight of the template is that they maintain consistency throughout the course providing it a professional feel. These templates can work as the experimental and learning tool for you to come up with your own template that will not only be appealing but will take care of the company’s and your branding. You can explore Discoverlink LMS that has professional and appealing templates that can help you create beautiful and aesthetically appealing eLearning courses.

Use SVG’s: Today’s learners like to learn on the go!. They prefer to learn from anywhere and anytime. Also, they prefer to access the eLearning content on the device of their choice that can be a tablet, computer, or smartphone. Thus it becomes mandatory that you use SVG (scaled vector graphics) to ensure that the design automatically scales as per the screen size without giving it a cluttered or messy look making it effectively responsive on all kinds of devices.

Conclusion: The first impression is formed by an effective visual. There is no doubt that visual designing is critical. However, consistency, uniformity, alignment, spacing, texture, etc. should be used with a minimalistic approach. This will ensure eye-soothing and relevant interactive content that will surely leave a positive impression on the learner’s making the course more engaging.