The Bad and the Ugly... No "Good" Here

Take a look at the following screenshot from an eLearning course. Think about what is wrong with it.

If you looked at this screen and thought:

• The main area of the stage uses really bad clip art that is not positioned well.
• The primary informational text is crammed into the lower left corner in a tiny scrolling text box.
• The Next button (the green right arrow) is located in a non-intuitive position and nestled too close to the text-box scroll bar.
• The instruction text (“Press Next to Continue”) is too large and away from the Next button, which, incidentally is not labeled “Next.”

You would have been on the mark. Extra points if you asked yourself, "where is the interaction?"

We know that instruction designed simply to transmit information is relatively ineffective. There are several fundamental reasons why users have difficulty using eLearning:

• Poor on-screen presentation of information
• Hard to use interfaces
• Too many technology barriers, i.e., computer software, high-speed internet requirements, web browser plug-ins
• Irrelevant content or content that doesn’t relate to the learner

Consider all these when designing and integrating media elements with instruction.

Comments

[eric stephan]

I'm with you on this... regarding the details about the UI, I'm amazed when I come across next buttons, navigation, etc., that requires people to blink, think, etc. Since there are those famous lucky hordes of usability people, whose jobs are so cool, how does this stuff still happen? I think that e-learning portals demonstrate lame interface far more than other software. By the way, I was giggled at a few months ago for making something that had GIANT, red, round Previous and Next buttons. in defending them, I wanted to just say "A bit too big? Hey, that's a good problem to have."