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A Visual Design Model

Good designers start by looking at the goals of the instruction and the graphic needs of the entire package, be it book, slideshow, e-learning module, or single-page job aid. They identify delivery and production constraints – page size, budget, bandwidth, learners’ workplace, classroom, or study area. They profile their audience, identifying key learner characteristics such as prior knowledge, primary language, visual acuity, cultural heritage, and interest in the instructional goals.

Only then do they begin to create the overarching design of the package, the display framework-what e-learning designers often call the “look and feel” or graphic interface and what videographers call the “treatment”  into which the individual graphics must fit. The next sections look at how instructional designers can do that systematically.

1. Define Goals
   Goals are:
   To inform or motivate
   To build near-transfer (procedural) skills & associated knowledge
   To build far-transfer (problem-solving) skills & associated knowledge can include procedural skills that support far-transfer tasks
   
   
2. Define Context
   Context Includes:
   Learner Profile  - e.g. novice, advanced, mixed
   Learning Landscape – e.g. classroom, self-study computer
   Deliver Media – e.g. book, computer, (resolution, bandwidth, etc.)
   Pragmatic Issues – e.g. budget, style, guides, etc.
   
   
3. Design Visual Approach
   Designing the Visual Approach includes:
   Determine the image
   Assess general graphic requirements of content
   Design Treatment – includes decisions about:
   Instructional Strategy:
   Text Dominant or visual dominant
   Layout or Interface for Media (style, orientation, real-estate)
   Navigation and functionality (for online learning)
   Surface features that align with context and goals
   
   
4. Identify Communication Function Needed to Match content types
   Identify Communication Function for:
   Multiple Content – use organizational visuals
   Procedures – use representational, transformational visuals
   Facts  – use diverse representational and mnemonic visuals
   Process - use transformational visuals
   Principles  – use explanatory visuals, such as relational, interpretive, or transformational
   

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