E-Learning Background

[DavidAnderson]

I would like to vary things, however, many clients (again) have their "corporate" font.

I hear you and I've consulted and worked with some of the biggest (read: conservative, rigid, inflexible, etc) out there and know it's not a battle easily fought.

IMO it's one of those areas where marketing and branding style guides are wrongly applied to unrelated areas. Branding is not the same as training. Branding is about unifying a single voice, image and perception. Training is about communication and not all courses communicate the same message.

For example, compliance training is about laying out the rules while maintaining a single, authoritative voice. On the other hand, leadership training is about gray areas, options and adapting to personality styles.

Anyway, I like this topic but again, completely agree that this isn't going to change for most internal groups.

[Amir]

Great debate going on between experts.
I ask this question if one is not tied in Organizational Beauracracy and is free to create a compeling e-learning. (What style of backgroud Colour or image, he should use).

Now I see when experts make e-presentations they some how restrict to White or Blue or some thing like that background and colour.

When they make e-learning they are some how free from these chains and use more of like a Yellow Copy binder background which some how give you a sense of you are in a class and also engaging as well.
The fonts they normally use are Handwritten and I personally like them as well..

What you say about it ?

[BrucUK]

Amir...
I fear you are not going to get any specific recomendations for your project, after all they are only recommendations, not "rules".
On a project of this size, I suspect (and recommend) that you go through an extensive "trial and prototype" stage before comitting to anything. You will need to come up with several styles, let (real) users have a look, and see what comes out.
A Pakistani audience may want something different from a UK, or US audience, and different generations may vary too.
I fear a "yellow binder" may become "gimmicky" after 10 slides, and I am afraid it will not affect the outcome of "classroom vs. online" at all.
There are good reasons why experts do things they way they do!
Perhaps you should have a good look around e.g. ted.com, and look at presentational styling? I would personally invest some of your time and resources into getting a style/design professional to give you some advice.
At the end of the day, what you like is pretty irrelevant - in a (speculative) commercial venture it's all about what the audience will buy!
Hope this helps.
Bruce

[DavidAnderson]

HI Amir - Here's another thread with screencast and template that might help. It walks you through some steps to help identify the common design elements and colors for your topic

Need Help with Mindmap for Visual Analysis

This process won't create the template for you, but it will help you lay out, for discussion, the types of images, colors, fonts, styles and overall look and feel for your project.

It's a starting point and similar to creating a rough draft script.

From there, you would, as Bruce recommends, begin your prototyping phase and work out various layout and graphic combinations.

Please check out the screencast and forum thread. There are some good things going on in there.

I'd be more than happy to go through the process with you. In fact it might be fun to do it here in the forums so you get multiple perspectives.

[Amir]

I think I should tease you guys alot. As the more questions I ask the more in depth knowledge I am getting from you, and is the reason I am stressing on things that should not be used at all.

@Bruce,
You have already been so kind and honest and are helping me in my project. Thanks for the links. By the way I am a great fan of Duarte and Guy and have been following there books from a few months.
Actually I bought this whole set of Three Books.
@David,
You are hilariously awesome.
I have been using mind maps for over a year and I am very good at it.

Although I have given the task to some guys, But I told them that I will be the main source of providing you the design and everything. The only job they will do is to create it for me. I will tell them how the animation should be moving from here and there and how should be the design and they will do it for me.

Thanks and I want more to learn as I believe:
There is always a different and better way to do something.

[kthorn]

Hi Amir,

Jumping in late, but I will echo Bruce and David here. In my experience, allowing style to overcome the the message will not be as effective in what you want to communicate to the learner.

Echoing again: Prototype in chunks. If this is a large course, take a small section (module, topic, etc.) and build 2-3 visual styles. Then get it in front of some learners as sort of an informal usability test. Speaking to your audience is one thing, but the visually communicating to them is equally important.

Before I begin choosing styles, colors, or fonts, I start at the "theme" level. For instance, a 'military' theme may have earthtone colors and stencil fonts to enhance graphic elements. A 'pharmaceutical' theme may have a clean and simply white (sterile) color with a serif font. Then again I wouldn't use an outdoor adventure theme for a cooking course.

Mindmap your course and get as many elements as you can. From there, choose a theme and a style. It is almost guaranteed the colors will jump out for you. Speaking of color, I would suggest no more than 5 colors total. 4 in a tone range from dark to light, and one contrasting color. You will be suprised at the combinations of style you can produce with just 5 colors.

[Amir]

@Kthorn,
I would never ever dare to dis-agree with @Bruce and @Anderson.
Thanks it's never late and how elegantly you portrait the use of colour's.
awesome, you guys rocks.

[Lloyd Dennington]

Very useful comments so far....I've got somewhere between 75 to 100 hours of training to create broken into 4 major areas (some WBT and some ILT). I was considering using a general PowerPoint theme for all of the areas and types of training and then changing the PPT color scheme for each of the 4 areas, matching the PPT color scheme with the color scheme used for Engage and Quizmaker. The particular font choice would not be required, but would be suggested. Does this sound too rigid and structured?

One of the major reasons for the tight structure is that the training developers will mostly be novices....this should take away personal choices (black screens with red lettering using the Chiller font, etc.)

Thoughts?

[kthorn]

Hi Lloyd,

Sounds like you have the right approach. If all 4 major areas are part of the same course (WBT or ILT), keeping the same theme across all visually lets the learnes know they are still in the same course. By changing up the color schemes across the 4 areas is also a good approach. This way the learner can visually distinguish between one area to the next, but yet still know they are in the same course structure...visually speaking.

As for font choice, the Aritcualte set of fonts works extremely well for content. Very clean font and great readability on screen. Best thing is there is no guess work. Occasionally, depending on focal points or topics, I switch it up to a serif or stylized font. If so, I restirct those styles to 1-2 for the entire course.

For instance: Often you will see a "tip" or "reminder" or a "Did you know?" peice in a course. (widely used in books). This is an opportunity to change up the font style as a way to visually indicate the content is different from the main content. At the same time, it doesn't take away from the flow.

From the artistic side of the design phase, you can never go wrong with this flow: Mindmap ideas, choose a theme, choose a style (colors/fonts). After that, it's just plug-n-play!

@Amir - Nah, go ahead...I dare you. It keeps them on their toes

[Lloyd Dennington]

Yep, that's what we need...plug-n-play.

I do like the Articulate set of fonts. Attachments will use a different font. If there's use of post-it notes or something similar, I might consider allowing a VERY readable handwriting font. But, I think that I need to be very careful when training the novice developers so that I don't allow much in the way of personal choice.