Let’s be honest—designing visually appealing eLearning courses can seem like a daunting task, especially if you're not a professional designer. It’s common knowledge that learners often judge eLearning content first by its visual appeal. If it doesn’t catch their eye, maintaining their motivation to learn can be challenging, no matter how compelling the content might be.

Are your eLearning courses not hitting the mark, leaving your team disengaged and disconnected? You're not alone in this challenge. Many L&D managers find themselves wrestling with lackluster training outcomes, and often, the missing piece is effective use of visuals. While visuals and graphic design are not a magic cure-all, they are a critical and often underutilized element in the success of training programs. Visual elements do more than just beautify content; they transform the learning experience by enhancing information processing and retention.

Did you know that a whopping 80% of what we process online is visual? Yes, our brains are hardwired to respond to visuals, especially when we're learning. This means that visuals, especially colors, are more than just design choices - they're game-changers in eLearning! Color isn't just a design choice; it's a dynamic tool that taps into the learner's psychology. Whether it's evoking a certain emotion, drawing attention to key content, or providing a calming backdrop for intensive learning, the strategic use of color can significantly amplify the effectiveness of eLearning materials. But, like any powerful tool, it's crucial to use it judiciously. Overwhelming your learners with a rainbow riot might just lead them down the path of cognitive overload, negating any positive effects.

We have been designing eLearning for quite some time now, but this blog post from Canva made us realize that great design is actually simple to create if you follow a few rules. So we thought we will spill the beans and let the world (the other eLearning designers who are still fumbling with the rules of the game) know about the 9 essential design tactics that will magically transform ho-hum eLearning courses into scintillating works without compromising on instructional effectiveness.

At the beginning of their journey, eLearning and online training professionals need to find the “secret sauce” for what works best with learners. The following five helpful mantras provide refreshing ideas for creating eLearning courses that go beyond the conventional approach.

Isn't it natural that eLearning courses should be designed around what the learners are expected to do? This is called backward design, where you keep the end in mind before developing the course. It is radically different from the traditional way in which eLearning courses are designed, which is to "dump" knowledge on the learners and hope they will find "some" use for it.

When we think of the word, motivation, instantly two things come to mind. First, when we are young, many outside things motivate us, a desire to do something, the reality of punishment from our parents, positive and negative reinforcement of what we are doing, etc. All of these things help to motivate children, and in some cases, it has a positive effect, and in other cases, it does not. The more proactive the motivation, the more positive the response to that motivation, the more reactionary the motivation, the more negative the response. The second picture that comes to mind is a learned reaction to something. Like Pavlov and his dogs, which would salivate when he rang the bell, motivation can be at times subconscious. However, there are much more things that drive the motivation of human beings, and in the arena of learning, there are some critical pieces to the puzzle that have to be developed so that learners feel the value of what they are learning and how it will benefit them. The rewards of their success must be considered from a variety of sources and satisfy them on a variety of levels, and as instructional designers of e-learning programs, we must not only understand these factors but be skilled in utilizing them in the courses that we design.

While a great eLearning design can act as a tonic and engage the learner at an optimum level, a bad eLearning design can lull the learners to sleep. That's right, how your learners perceive the instructional content is more often than not dependent on the design element. Learners ignore cluttered and boring design. They gravitate, instead, to one that’s aesthetically pleasing. If you are new to design, or looking to brush up on eLearning design best-practices, this post is for you!