If you’re just starting out in your Instructional Design career, these 5 tips are just for you. Want to add something to the list? Leave a comment below:
Understand the difference between UX and UI: User Experience (UX) is what your learner takes away from the overall experience of your course. The User Interface (UI) is made up of all the elements that enable your learner to interact with the course. UI design is a part of UX design.
Create prototypes early in your course design process: Prototyping will take more time in the front end of your design process. However, creating an early version of your course and sharing it with your client (and potential learners) will help you resolve usability issues early in the process. That can save you time and money.
Use a responsive course template even if your organization isn’t mobile ready: It will make things easier when they ARE ready to move to mobile (and they probably will). Ensure your learner’s experience translates from desktop to a mobile device.
Test the usability of your design on a group of representative learners: Start testing how easy it is for your learners to understand navigation and learning interactions in every stage of your design. Send SMEs or test users single slides of your interactions to test.
Research, Research, Research: What are the main problems that your learner faces with their course? UX research can help identify these problems and reveal solutions
Understanding UX design principles will help make your e-learning course better, there’s no doubt about it. It definitely won’t hurt your ID practice if you decide to take UX seriously.
Many of us have had to learn new skills on the fly and of our own volition. We’ve become coders, graphic designers, and researchers in our pursuit of developing the best courses possible.
Your learner’s experience with your course directly impacts how they are able to learn. That’s why you see more and more Instructional Designers interested in UX Design. If you are interested in finding out more about the intersection between instructional design and user experience design, read my post titled "QTNA #1: What is Learning Experience Design?".
Are you looking for someone to talk to about your Instructional Design career? Join my 100 IDs program, where I mentor and coach new Instructional Designers and e-Learning Developers. Find out more here.