Make Helpful Images Not Just Beautiful Ones

Apr 13, 2022

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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