10 Design Standards to Create Better eLearning!
November 23, 2009 · Print This Article
If you’re thinking about creating eLearning courses you’ve probably started to think about standards. eLearning content needs to follow standards just like classroom manuals and material. When content is standardized it makes it easier for the learner to understand and quickly process the content. They stop noticing inconsistencies and focus on what you’d really like them to – the meat!
Once you’ve come up with your own list of standards, make sure that everyone on the team has them (and lives by them). Don’t be soft. Enforce the standards and maybe even create some templates that are already “standardized”. You could also implement a final Q/A checklist that makes the designer complete a checklist that they followed each standard. After awhile following the standards will just become second nature.
Here is my list of 10 things that I’d include in my list of “standardized items”:
1. Bolding: Decide how to use bolding. To emphasize, as headings, for sections, to indicate actions?
2. Italics: Are hyperlinks italicized? What about names of documents, screens and systems?
3. Fonts: Choose 2-3 fonts and decide which one is for headings, body text, and possibly image design.
4. Colors: Find colors that contrast well. There are many different websites that help create color schemes and check contrast. Just a tip…stay away from lime and purple text.
5. Layout: Design 5-10 different layouts and let the team use them. This saves time because each page doesn’t have to be custom designed each time. It also trains the learner to know how to understand your pages. Consider using e Learning templates.
6. Grammar and tense: Are you talking directly to the learner? Past tense or present tense (maybe future)? Should you be formal or informal?
7. Images: Will your images have shadows, rounded corners, feathering, borders, reflections, be square?
8. Buttons: What buttons will you always use? You might need buttons for next, back, jobaids, exit, simulation, more info, tips, play, course evaluation, get help, FAQs, feedback, and replay.
9. Logos: What logos will you have displayed? Company, department, none?
10. Text Size: What size are the headings? How about the body text?
Bonus List:
- File types: What types of files are allowed and function in the course? (.mov, .swf, .avi, .png, .wmv, etc.)
- Icons: Create a library of standard icons such as: caution, checkmarks, notes, numbers, arrows, etc.
- Interactivity: How do you tell the user to do something? Click the XXXXX button or Click XXXX? Do you bold what action the user should take?
- Bullets: What shape of bullets will you use?
- Course player/GUI: Create a standard interface for all courses. This allows the user to get used to how to navigation and use the courses.
Even More Tips from the Comments Section…Thanks! (view comments below)
- Component names: What do you call parts of the screen? Drop-down menu or List box? How to you tell them to access these components? Select, click, choose, enter, type, etc.
- Capitalization: Make it consistent throughout. For instance, are you capitalizing button names (on the buttons and in instructional references — all lowercase, all caps, title case)? What about certain terms (and if so, which ones)?
Here’s a nice article on Legibility from Adobe Magazine.
I know that I’ve missed a bunch. What others would you include?
(Check out amazing eLearning Games, Flash Interactions, PowerPoint Backgrounds, and e Learning Templates)
Thanks Brother Andrew – a worthwhile topic indeed, and one that I feel strongly about.
My team writes documentation, ILT materials, and elearning for technical applications, and we are rabid about standards. Not only do standards have to be maintained within a course or document, but also across all products and formats within the company.
When writing process-oriented content, language is an important standard.
- Component names: Do you call it a “dropdown menu” or a “list box”?
- How do you tell learners to access components? Do you tell them to choose a menu item or select it? Do you tell them to enter text into a field, or type it?
- Menu items: Do you say, “Click on the File menu and select Save”. Or do you say, “Click File > Save”?
When working across multiple formats, there are also differences to take into account. For example, image quality. Web-based images for elearning don’t need to be as high-quality (nor should they be) as those for print-based products. Yet for single-sourcing purposes, it is wise to create a print version and a web version of every image used.
These are a fraction of the decisions a development team has to make for development standards. Then there are formatting standards, application-specific standards, graphic standards, reference standards, metadata standards, and many many more.
Designers should also be aware, that while it is essential to maintain styles and standards, it is also of utmost importance to understand the sin of “absolutism”. Styles and standards provide the foundation for consistency within courseware, but there is always the exception to the rule. Never stifle creativity for the sake of “sticking to the rules”.
Thanks for the concise list. As basic as these sound, I have found that it is necessary to gain agreement on these foundational approaches for consistency and user comfort.
Sound and sound effects should be standardized.
Is there background music? Do pop-ups make a sound? Do buttons make a sound when clicked? Is narration noted with a visual cue? Where on the screen will Closed Captioning be?
Nice list Andrew.
I’d add a Capitalization section. Make it consistent throughout. For instance, are you capitalizing button names (on the buttons and in instructional references — all lowercase, all caps, title case)? What about certain terms (and if so, which ones)?
And then in the Colors section, I’d make note to be more aware of issues related to learners with loss of color perception and color deficiencies. Keep that in mind when choosing colors, and also when providing instruction (don’t tell the learner to select the red button, for instance — tell them to select the “Stop” button).
Very descriptive post i really like to read.