eLearning User Interface Basics
The user interface design you use in your eLearning modules are key to your user’s ability to see, read, interact, navigate, and in the end, comprehend your content. The user interface (often called a UI) also refers to the elements of design, or the “look and feel” of the project. We have all used custom based modules, as well as PowerPoint, Articulate, Captivate, and Lectora (to name a few) based modules and have seen the way they use user interfaces to guide the user through the content using a menu or next button. This basic, or 101 level introduction of eLearning user interfaces will look at what is often used and why.
Let’s first take a look at an interface that has elements that we often see. Take a little time looking at the design below. Pay attention to the content, the navigation, and other components. We will break them down shortly.
We have all been there, we take a course on, for instance, loading a stapler with new staples. We might learn that we need to open the magazine, pull back on the follow block and follow spring, place new staples, and so on (I will spare you all the details). We take the assessment that asks what we pull back on before adding staples (Answer: follow block and follow spring of course!), and we pass with flying colors. We feel like we know quite well how to add staples and we are all set to add new staples to a real stapler… quite exciting. We get to our new offices and realize that we have no clue what a stapler looks like. We don’t know what a follow block or magazine looks like. We don’t even know what staples look like. We thought we were prepared but we never had the ability to visualize ourselves actually performing the tasks. For the record, the item to the right is a stapler with some quick labels thrown on for good measure. Of course this is an example. Most of us know what a stapler is, but our learning module might be about filling out a specific form, driving a reach truck, using a 5mm surgical cut guide, or punching in F5 on a IR scanner. I certainly can’t picture any […]