Make Helpful Images Not Just Beautiful Ones

How do you balance aesthetics and helpfulness when creating videos? Diane Elkins, the Co-owner of Artisan E-Learning and E-Learning Uncovered, joins this episode of The Visual Lounge to discuss.

Diane is a national e-learning expert. She’s in the business of helping people create courses they can be proud of —and visual aids happen to play a big part. It’s not simply about creating visuals that look great.

They also have to be purposeful, offer value, and complement the rest of your content.

For the yes’s, maybes, and absolutely-nots of creating visual content that gets the message across, tune in to this episode of The Visual Lounge.

Learning points from the episode include:

• 00:00 - 02:16 Intro
• 02:17 - 02:58 Diane tells us about herself
• 02:59 - 04:25  How Diane pivoted from graphic design to training and learning
• 04:26 - 07:51 The role of visuals in producing good learning material
• 07:52 - 09:55 Best practices in creating good visuals
• 09:56 - 13:33 How to pull back with design elements
• 13:34 - 15:48 The difference between a classroom trainer and an e-learning module
• 15:49 - 18:56 How much information should accompany visuals
• 18:57 - 25:42 Different levels to consider when creating visuals
• 25:43 - 27:33 How visuals can do more harm than good
• 27:34 - 29:36 A litmus test to check if your content helpful
• 29:37 - 32:03 Tips to get from analogies to solid visual concepts
• 32:04 - 32:50 Why the audience is more important than the content
• 32:51 - 33:29 Overlaps between training and marketing
• 33:30 - 41:02 Decorating vs illustrating your content
• 41:03 - 48:49 Diane gives practical tips on how to make visual content more helpful
• 48:50 - 52:35 Speed round questions
• 52:36 - 54:54 Diana and Matt chat about editing audio
• 54:55 - 55:47 How to connect with Diane
• 55:48 - 56:46 Outro

Important links and mentions:

• E-Learning Uncovered: https://elearninguncovered.com/
• Artisan E-Learning: https://artisanelearning.com/
• Diane’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpelkins/
• When Graphics Lower Learning by Patti Shank: https://elearningindustry.com/when-graphics-lower-learning

Learn more about the TechSmith Academy.

To read the blog post on the topic or watch the video, go to: https://www.techsmith.com/blog/make-helpful-images