The key to the success of any product is good design. Why would it be any different in learning?
If a product is designed well, it will meet the needs and expectations of customers, and they will feel satisfied. Customers will not feel satisfied if, at any stage of their experience with the product, they feel that they were duped into buying a poor quality product, that their expectations were not met, or that they didn’t get value for money.
Due to the impersonal, asynchronous nature of elearning and digital content more generally, it’s easy to forget about the learner or the reader. In my experience in this field, I have come across many examples where the learner experience has simply not been considered. Important information is sometimes buried at the end of an eternal page that readers have to scroll through. Websites that look impressive are often confusing or non-functional. Elearning content built by veritable experts is often incomprehensible for a beginner.
Good design takes effort and careful thought, yet its principles are simple enough to grasp and put into practice. Besides, well-designed products sell, and it follows that well-designed digital content and elearning sells as well. This article outlines the principles of good design and how they can be applied to elearning products.
What are the principles of good product design?
The principles of good design are universal for all products. Think of any product that you are happy with, and you will see how it satisfies these principles:
- Easy to understand
- Easy to use
- Pleasing to the senses
- Price corresponds to value
- Delivers on its promise
The order of importance of these principles will vary from product to product, but they all matter. A food product, for instance, should be pleasing to the senses first and foremost. It needs to look, smell, and taste good. That can rate more highly than delivering on its promise of providing nutritional value. If its preparation for consumption is complicated or cumbersome, or it’s overpriced, the perception of value plummets and the experience is tainted.
Note how the principles of good design are intrinsically connected. If something looks good, it may be more easily understood, and if something is easy to use, it’s more likely to deliver on its promise. If a product tries hard to look “pretty” with unnecessary bells and whistles, the user will pick up on it, and those elements are likely to irritate rather than impress.
Let’s consider an app for online banking. This type of product must be easy to understand and use, and it must deliver on its promise of enabling customers to conduct online banking. In terms of the senses, it’s important that the design is pleasing to the eye, not for the sake of aesthetics but for clarity. If the app makes the user feel like their time was well spent, the transaction they performed went smoothly, the outcome was properly communicated, and it felt safe throughout, then the product succeeded. They will feel inclined to use it more regularly, and rate the experience or talk about it with other people.
The principles of good product design seem obvious. However, depending on the product, there may be more to creating a product that satisfies all these principles than you might think. Many universities now offer bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in product design1, and some companies specialize in product design. There are many different theoretical models for product design you can rely on: user-centered design, design thinking, agile design, and participatory design. There is a growing awareness of the importance of product design, and it’s an area that has experienced huge leaps in evolution in recent years.
So yes, there is a lot to consider in designing a product. But when it comes to the process, if the designer heeds the principles, they are more likely to achieve success. Everything starts with a fundamental directive: step into the user’s shoes. User feedback is essential, and so is knowing how to convert it into a well-designed product. Let’s review the principles of good design a little deeper, and discuss best practices regarding testing, feedback and user-led product iteration.
Easy to understand
Time and again, designers fail to adopt the user’s point of view, and end up designing products that may satisfy their own needs and expectations but not those of a typical user. Expertise and knowledge can easily cloud the perspective of the designer, and they may fail to see that the user may need additional context. That is why it’s essential to step into the user’s shoes and design products that are easy for the user to understand.
Easy to use
The curse of knowledge can inhibit good design thinking. Unfortunately, there are many designers who see user confusion as irritating, or something to dismiss.
User feedback is essential. It informs the designer of any issues or defects that get in the way of a positive user experience. The best type of user feedback is that which is given while the user is interacting with or using the product. Make sure you capture detailed, quality information, both verbal and non-verbal—such as a video of the user with the product, or very detailed notes. If a product is not easy to use, in-the-moment feedback will highlight the issues.
Pleasing to the senses
While users can tell you a lot about how to make a product better, they might not be the best source when it comes to creating an initial design or prototype that will stand out from competitors. For the designer, this skill develops with experience.
A well-designed product weaves a relationship between the designer and the user. If the user feels there is no sense of aesthetics, creativity or pleasure in the experience, the product will become an afterthought, easily replaced by a cheaper, more pleasing alternative.
Price corresponds to value
There is a strong correlation between quality and price, and the best feedback you get comes courtesy of supply and demand. The price of a product is a powerful signal about its quality, and this shapes customer expectations. Customers expect a high-quality experience from expensive products. A “cheap” product implies inferior quality, and users are generally more forgiving. Whatever the price, the success of a product depends on delivering significant value relative to its cost.
Delivers on its promise
After all is said and done, what makes a product successful depends on whether it delivers. Just as with price, expectations play a crucial role. Does the product meet users expectations? Again, the only way to find out is to get feedback from users.
Applying product design to elearning
Let’s now consider the application of the principles of product design to an elearning product, be it an online training module, a simulation, a micro-credential, or an entire hyflex program. Why is it that so many learning products fail? Typically, they fail because they breach one or more of the principles of good design. Admittedly, it can be hard to design and create an elearning product that satisfies them all, or continues to do so over time. Among other things, it takes confidence, or dare I say, courage, to defend the principles throughout the design process while facing financial or stakeholders’ concerns.
As a former instructional designer creating elearning in the pharma industry, it was often a challenge to convince subject matter experts of the merits of rendering technical language into plain English that was more accessible to the target audience. Their input and involvement was essential, of course, but ultimately, the learner’s experience should not be compromised for technical accuracy. Both can always be accommodated.
Keep your principles top of mind
Below is a suggested prioritization of the principles for elearning, but this can vary from one learner or stakeholder to another:
- Delivers on its promise: the learner must learn something
- Easy to understand: the subject may be complex; the learning experience should not be
- Easy to use: the learner should feel empowered and comfortable knowing where to find what they need
- Price corresponds to value: production costs should be offset by the benefits of learning
- Pleasing to the senses: the delivery of learning should be smooth, aesthetic, clean, straightforward, and satisfying
For learning to take place, a learning product has to deliver on its promise. In simple terms, it must allow learners to achieve the learning outcomes. Rance Greene, in his book Instructional Story Design2, highlights the power of storytelling to engage the learner, and provide enough of a challenge to enable them to achieve the learning objectives, that is to deliver on the promise of learning.
For learning to happen, content must be easily understood and the platform it’s delivered on must be easy to use. As far as stakeholders are concerned, the price needs to correspond to the value delivered, which implies a positive ROI on learning3. Success criteria can be hard to measure; nonetheless, the earlier they are thought of, and the more frequently they are assessed, the better. Also, putting thought into how the learning experience pleases the senses, perhaps with quality media, sound and interactivity, can often surpass expectations with relatively little investment.
A successful learning product is a learner-centered product
To ensure that a learning product or solution meets the needs and expectations of learners and other stakeholders, it’s important to consider the guiding principles in the design process. Once again, success is about being as deeply acquainted with real learners as possible. Talk to them, watch them use the learning product, ask them to fill out surveys. Then, implement learner feedback and continuously adjust and iterate the learning experience.
The ideal scenario is for actual learners to provide feedback at different stages in the design and development process. In most cases, this can be difficult and expensive to achieve. A cost-effective alternative is to pilot your elearning with people who are not involved in its development, and who match the learner persona as closely as possible.
Account for diversity
Learners are not a homogeneous group of people, but there are usually commonalities that need to be explored and considered when designing a learning solution for a group of learners. Here are some questions the designer might consider:
- Do the learners all work for the same company?
- What roles do they perform?
- What’s the typical educational or literacy level of learners?
- What’s the culture of the company they work for?
- Are there language considerations?
Understanding the different learner profiles present in the target population is often best achieved through discussion with the learning and development stakeholders. They can usually provide a good description of the target audience, and make it easy to pinpoint the learners’ current knowledge and skill levels, as well as the gaps the learning solution needs to bridge.
Conclusion
My intent with this article is to highlight the importance of incorporating good design principles into the process of creating learning products to ensure that learners enjoy great learning experiences.
Adhering to these simple-yet-powerful design principles becomes easy when you place the learner at the heart of the design process. By gathering their feedback and transforming it into improvements in the learning experience, as designers, we can achieve better outcomes.
It’s not enough to conduct reviews for technical and editorial accuracy only. It’s essential to step into the learner’s shoes. The learner is the most important consideration in the design process.
Learner-centered design is the key to the success of any learning product.
By Emer Keating, Learning Product Specialist with ETU
Emer is an experienced professional in digital content development, specializing in instructional and training content. She is dedicated to ensuring that employees gain the knowledge and skills they need for peak performance in the workplace. With a commitment to a learner-centered approach, Emer employs design-thinking principles and storytelling techniques to craft engaging and effective learning experiences. She currently works for ETU, an elearning company with a difference, creating immersive, scenario-based simulations to develop and evaluate soft skills in the workplace.
