Lessons about Visual Design that I Neglected to Follow
As a freelance artist who has studied and produced art for years, I thought visual design would come naturally to me and yet it was the one thing I neglected in instructional design. In fact, when it came to visual design in the courses I created, I failed, miserably. The reason is simple. I didn’t pay attention to it. I was solely focused on instructional design principles, content, and assessments. I am embarrassed to admit that I didn’t even realize that I was neglecting something so important until someone pointed it out to me. I mean who neglects CRAP (contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity) and doesn’t even know it?! Surely not me… I joke.
I decided that I was going to have to go back to my roots. As an artist, when I got stuck, I turned to the works of artists I admired such as Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Francisco Clemente and Elizabeth Murray. Their work inspired me and gave me new ideas. This time, I turned to magazines and...
7taps® Pro or Rookie?
7taps® is Available in a Pro Edition in addition to the "Forever Free" Community Edition
Last month we talked about the brand-new authoring tool, 7taps®, that features a stack of cards you can customize as a microlearning asset. You will recall 7taps® entered the market in October 2020 and boasts it delivers an astounding 99% completion rate in corporate training*. Some questions remain from our last discussion. Such as: is the 7taps® product professional enough for big business? Is 7taps® still a rookie when it comes to authoring tools? What are the differences between the Forever Free and Pro Editions? Who is their target customer? Businesses or individuals? Lots of questions! Let's get to the answers.
Porter's Five Forces
First, if you've ever taken a marketing class, then Porter's Five Forces should be familiar to you. You can see the...
Visual Design Part 1: How to Get Started
When I was interviewing for my first Instructional Designer job, I was asked many times about what I thought were the three most important things that made an eLearning course good. There’s really a lot that I could have listed. However, I always mentioned good visual design as one of the crucial things to get right. And they agreed.
For several reasons. I am only going to focus on two.
We know that first impressions matter. Besides, many times our learners are not really excited about taking the course, even if it’s not compliance training. So we don’t want to make a bad impression and possibly alienate them. They say “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but when we are browsing for a book, a film, or even a new beverage, we form an opinion based on the visuals. Have you ever decided against watching a film just because the graphics looked off? We need to gain the learners’ interest, not put them off.
The other reason is that...
How to Use Any Technology
Two months later, I didn’t only fill that gaping hole about HTML, but I was copying CSS and Javascript codes to modify things on my website and add special functions to my Storyboard course.
In two short, but very busy months, I built two websites with Google Sites, created videos with Powtoon, Camtasia, Biteable, and Vyond and I developed interactive courses with Genial.ly, Rise, and Storyline. None of which I had known much about before. I had not even heard of Canva, Visme, or Snagit either, yet I was now effortlessly designing images for my assets.
I am not here to boast. My point is that if I could do that, anyone can and I am happy to share some tips.
FIND SOME TIME
I think the best way to learn any tech is to find...
The Multiple Personalities of an ID
Those of us in-the-know understand if we posed this question to 100 different people within the Learning and Development industry, we would probably get 100 different answers. Yet, they would all be correct to some degree. This is due to the multiple personalities of an ID. Rather, the many roles we fulfill from project to project.
The crux for all of those answers would be “Instructional design is the design, development, and delivery of learning experiences. It constructs those experiences in such a way that learners acquire either knowledge or skills,” according to getsynapse.com. “Instructional designers follow various academic theories and...
5 Lessons I Learned Building My Portfolio
Are you a perfectionist?
Are you struggling to build your first portfolio?
Do you feel like you're spinning your wheels and not getting anywhere?
STOP! Right where you are. Save yourself wasted time and effort by learning from my mistakes.
Here are some revelations I had while working on my portfolio:
Set realistic expectations for what your portfolio should look like based on your current abilities and experience as an instructional designer. If you are new to the field, aim to demonstrate your proficiency and understanding, instead of skill and expertise.
While the portfolios of experts and leading industry practitioners are great sources of inspiration, your portfolio will likely not look like theirs. As a novice, you do not have the experience to create a portfolio equivalent to the portfolios that took others years and sometimes a decade-plus to work up to.
Here are some examples of what your first portfolio website might look like:
Finding Your Design Identity
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you read these two words: design identity?
If you are thinking this is just an alternative way of referring to your brand or brand identity, you’re wrong.
Here’s why:
Your brand is how people perceive you.
“A brand is the recognizable feeling a product or business evokes...They live in the minds of everyone who experiences them.”
Your brand identity is how you want to be perceived and what you create to influence that perception (logos, color palette, etc).
“Brand identity is the collection of all elements that a company creates to portray the right image to its consumer.”
Your design identity is who you are as an instructional designer.
“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”
---Epictetus
To discover your design identity is to undergo self-discovery without the pressure to...
