9 Tips for Effective User Experience Design In Elearning
Online learning and e-learning have become staples in education, thanks to the convenience they provide students and teachers alike.
The experience of elearning can often be quite different from classroom-based instruction, however, and this difference can impact how well students learn materials.
User experience (UX) design plays an important role in creating effective online learning experiences by making sure that users are able to find and engage with the information or tools they need to complete their coursework as easily as possible.
Here are nine tips for effective UX design for online learning and e-learning environments.
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1) Consistency Is Key In UX design for elearning
With UX, it’s all about getting into users’ heads. To do that, it helps to understand their behavior and what they expect. Use eLearning platforms Like TheLearning LAB that have been around long enough to build a solid reputation and good user-experience design.
Make sure you know what your learners expect from online learning—what makes sense and what seems off or just plain wrong? Get familiar with common terms like user experience (UX) or user interface design (UI).
These are key components of a good online learning design. A great platform will be able to integrate these important elements into everything they do—the look, feel, and overall structure of content delivery should reinforce expectations around consistent usage.
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9 Powerful Tips for Effective User Experience Design In Elearning.
2) Keep It Simple, Straightforward
In design, KISS refers to keeping it simple and straightforward. That’s what your user wants. That’s what will make them successful at their task. If your interface is cluttered, confusing, or hard to use, people will quit before they finish their tasks.
Clear instructions and a simple interface are essential elements of online learning that must be designed into any course. As a designer, you have an obligation to help learners achieve their goals and that starts with user experience (UX) design in e-learning development.
You might consider hiring a professional UX specialist to handle such aspects as layout, graphics, flowcharts, etc., but you need to get involved when it comes to topics like color choice or font selection. Hire someone with proven online learning expertise who understands how those choices affect users' needs and objectives.
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3) Stick To Basic Elements in Elearning content development
If you want to create an effective learning experience, start by limiting your options to core elements. If you add too many bells and whistles or if your product is overly complicated, it will be difficult for users to understand how it works and how they can achieve their goals.
To maximize online learning, keep things simple. Choose only what's necessary, then move on.
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4) Show, Don’t Tell while creating your elearning courses
It’s easy to want to tell people about your idea and get them excited about it. But stories aren’t always the best way to communicate user experience (UX) design. Instead, show users how a product works by using interactive prototypes or wireframes. These are visual representations of what a website or app would look like that let you highlight key features and functionality without giving too much away at once.
They help illustrate UX concepts in real-time, so users can explore your product on their own terms—which helps give them ownership over their learning experience. This translates into more engaged learners who have a clear sense of where they should be headed with their skillset.
The more users feel in control of their learning, the often means higher satisfaction overall with your content. And when those happier learners sign up for more courses or recommend your services to others, that’s also good for business! The benefits go both ways: happy learners = happy organizations.
5) Don’t Skimp On The Big Stuff when creating elearning courses
If you want to make your online learning as effective as possible, it’s important to keep in mind a few key design principles. For instance, it’s critical that you remove any speed bumps or unnecessary obstacles from your user interface (UI). If your users get stuck during any portion of their experience, you risk losing them completely and deterring them from returning.
When designing UX for online learning programs, don’t skimp on anything that could distract from good functionality—the effort is well worth it. After all, an unusable design will cause learners to quickly become frustrated with your brand and lose interest in whatever services you’re offering.
The best approach? Be patient and stick to tried-and-true web design rules. A quick Google search can give you great inspiration, but remember that perfecting your UI takes time!
The more time you invest upfront, however, will pay off exponentially when your customers remain happy.
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6) People Are Multitaskers
The first and most important thing to remember is that people learning online are already doing something else. They're reading an email, catching up on social media, or watching a YouTube video—they are multitasking by definition.
As such, when you design your course it should be simple enough to be done with only occasional glances at your screen.
Research shows that we’re only really capable of concentrating on one task at a time; though we sometimes can juggle two tasks simultaneously (like driving while talking) our minds tend to jump between tasks without any mental effort.
When designing an online learning experience, make sure users have to do as little jumping as possible.
Put essential tools front-and-center in your program and let users change settings or create additional content in smaller windows they can put off-screen during more in-depth material.
Chances are if users have to reach too far away from the main focus they won't bother trying anything new anyway. Make things easy so they'll want to stick around for the long haul!
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7) Aesthetics Count and your elearning course design matters
When it comes to UX design, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. However, there are some aspects of a site’s design that are universally loved by all users.
These include aesthetic elements like color palettes and fonts as well as usability enhancements like smooth page scrolling and intuitive modal windows.
Consider your audience when creating these elements—online learners tend to skew younger than traditional students, and you may want to choose an interface that mirrors popular applications geared toward their generation.
Conversely, older learners may appreciate a more grown-up layout with fewer graphics and bells and whistles. The purpose of aesthetics is to create an overall pleasant experience; avoid getting too cute or trendy with it! Instead, stick with what you know works best.
If you aren’t sure about something, ask someone else to look at your work and get their opinion.
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8) Flexibility And Customization Matters in UX Design For eLearning
There’s no doubt that online learning is a powerful way to reach and engage more people, at a lower cost, with more impact. What’s also clear is that online learners are not cookie-cutter humans.
What works for one might not work for all. Give students ways to customize their experience by making things like fonts and themes customizable or by giving them ways to rearrange or organize their content (such as using drag-and-drop).
Ask users what they want from your product and then give it to them. Even if it’s just available on request – even if you don’t think those features will get used – offering customization can help you retain customers.
If something isn't working for customers, change it! And remember: your customers aren't always right but they're always your guide when building new products or experiences; they are often experts of their own context, so ask their opinions!
9) Always Test And Iterate While designing your elearning program
Although there’s no substitute for good information architecture and effective design, testing can go a long way toward ensuring your UX works as intended. And with so many tools available to help you out (even at low or no cost), there’s really no excuse not to do it.
You’ll be amazed by how much quicker and cheaper testing is in comparison to re-designing (which can often be an expensive, time-consuming process).
Make your software testable before you build it—and test early and often. What may have seemed like a minor detail before testing could turn into a huge flaw once you see just how it looks or feels on screen.
Testing helps you get closer to an optimal solution; and if nothing else, will give you valuable data to help make future iterations better.
Remember: always know why you're doing what you're doing... and make sure those reasons still apply after testing! The more informed your decisions are going forward, the better things will continue working from that point forward.
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Conclusion
The key to effective UX design is to make sure that your users feel engaged and involved in what they are doing so that they finish their activity with a sense of accomplishment. Additionally, by keeping your learners engaged and interested, you can prevent them from losing interest in what they are doing.
If a student loses interest in an online course, it will be very difficult to get him or her to complete it. That’s why good user experience design is so important. With these tips, you can help keep students more engaged with your materials and create a more personalized learning experience.
Furthermore, you can make use of TheLearning LAB Elearning platform which allows you to create custom e-learning courses that are engaging, adaptive, and interactive. One of our key strengths is our ability to create highly effective user experience design. The result: better engagement, higher conversion rates, and fewer training expenses.