Keeping it Simple – Less is More

by | Apr 26, 2017 | Blog, E-Learning, Whiteboard Animation

There are so many different sayings out there – less is more, bigger is better – but which are actually true. There have been some studies to prove that when it comes to design and e-learning, keeping it simple is the best way.

 

 

Imagine going on a website or watching a video, when suddenly things keep popping up all over the screen, every piece of space is filled with information, music plays loudly and all you want to do is find one piece of information. You would start to panic and get annoyed that you can’t find what you were looking for, making you close down the website or video before finding out what you needed.

Doodle of woman at computer

It might be best to think of simplicity not as less content but as order and organisation. You can easily get across everything you need to say without bombarding your audience with all the information at once. 

 

Cutting down on the amount of content in one scene doesn’t just keep the viewer watching, but will make it easier for them to learn and understand the content.

 

For e-learning courses, having the important concepts easily accessible will help the viewer to concentrate on what is important.

Too much on a screen can make it seem as if the course is impossible to accomplish – making it look harder than it may be, overwhelming the viewer. If you were to narrow down what you are getting across, it make the whole process much easier for your learner.

 

 

 

Use of Script

 

So far what I’ve been talking about is how it looks, but keeping your script simple is a powerful tool as well.

Steve Jobs

 

One of the best public speakers, Steve Jobs, was extremely clever with the way he presented his work. Everyone is copying his techniques. Steve jobs would speak at a 5th grade level at his talks (that’s 10-11 year olds for us English people). Not only does this open up his audience to hundreds more

people, it makes it extremely easy for everyone to enjoy and understand his message. And with a net worth of $10.2 billion at the time of his death, he clearly did something right.

So there you have it, it seems that less is more! If you don’t believe us, test it out yourself. We’d love to hear the results, and we’re easy to get hold of, whether on our Twitter or Facebook, we only ask that you keep the message simple.