I got started in the
business because I can write. I like to think that I have some visual design
acumen, but it’s pretty haphazard. The last time I studied the color wheel was
probably in eighth grade.
And yet eLearning is a
really visual medium. We’re communicating with people through the tools of the
screen: text, audio, video, images. Layout and aesthetics matter. As designers
of learning experiences (and no matter your role in that process—be it a
writer of instructional material that you handoff to a graphics team, or a
one-stop-instructional design shop where you do it all) one essential skill
that you should be honing is visual design.
“If you are like most learning designers, you have
little to no background in visual design. Yet you wear many hats and are often
responsible for the visual communication aspect of your materials—whether you
create them yourself or collaborate with others.” (From the preface, Visual
Design Solutions)
Connie, also known as “The eLearning Coach”, is one of the coolest eLearning people I know. I consider her
a friend and I’ve had the good fortune to eat many a meal with her—chewing our
food while also chewing the proverbial eLearning cud. I respect her mind. She is thoughtful,
thorough, and really knows her stuff. So consider this review biased.
The book is organized in
four main sections:
Part I: The Big Ideas in which Connie explains the difference between art
and design and exhorts you to “Think like a designer; you are one”.
Part 2: Building Blocks of Design, in which Connie gets into the nuts and bolts of
things like white space and layouts, explains the difference between typeface
and fonts, and makes it clear how a .png is different from a .jpg (I never knew
it had to do with transparency!)
Part 3: Power Principles, in which Connie decodes the color wheel, talks
about visual hierarchies, and introduces ways to organize your layouts for
greater impact.
Part 4: Practicing Design, in which Connie pulls it all together to show how to
apply these core skills to create emotional tension, enhance meaning, and tell
stories.
She presents design concepts
and theories that—to a seasoned visual designer—are real foundational stuff,
e.g., complementary colors or hierarchies. But she does it without
condescending. If your last art class was in middle school like me, then you’ll
appreciate Connie’s wonderful re-introduction to the color wheel and the theory
behind what’s pleasing to the eye and why.
Connie really does want to
help you make better learning design. She says this stuff isn’t hard; you can get better with practice. And I believe her. It certainly helps that
she’s stuffed this book chock full of examples and non-examples so you can see
the difference between a well designed page and a hot sticky mess of one.
I know that Connie is not
someone to delve lightly into the task of writing a book. She takes her work
seriously and aims for perfection. This means that you, the reader, will
benefit from all the hours of research that went into this work.
As an advance reader, I got a PDF version of the book. Although I don’t mind reading books on a computer, there are
some books that just call for a physical reference. I can’t wait to get a hard copy.
This is a book that I’ll be flipping through with my fingers to just the right
page when I need a reminder about the difference between a hairline vs. a wedge
serif, or want to check out that dynamic page layout example that really moved
my eye along in a pleasing way.
So who’s this book good for?
- An accidental instructional
designer who’s fallen into this eLearning stuff seemingly by…accident. You’re
responsible for the entire project soup to nuts and need to gather the content
and build the elearning courses all by yourself. You’re now trying to get
yourself up and running as quickly as you can. And while you’re great at
teaching people in your organization how to follow a tricky process, you’ve
never had to create graphics before.
- A graphic artist who knows
your stuff and wants to give an easy-to-understand yet comprehensive graphics
primer to the people you work with so you’re all speaking the same language.
- A graphic artist working in
the learning field for the first time. You want to know how things like working
memory and cognitive load should factor into the visual designs you create.
- An instructional designer or
eLearning content writer who works with graphic artists. You want to better
understand the principles of good visual design so you can write better scripts
and define more meaningful graphics for your team to create.
- An eLearning project team
member who reviews courses and talks with clients about eLearning. You want to
hone your eye so you can guide your project to a higher quality and explain to
your clients why adding a flashing orange button in the bottom left corner just
isn’t good design.
I’m sure I’ve missed a few
others who could benefit from the book. See for yourself!
Visual Design Solutions: Principles and Creative
Inspiration for Learning Professionals by Connie Malamed. Find it on Amazon and in the ATD book store (discounted for members).
