hello all,
I was having a discussion with some coworkers regarding best practices for elearning. Where should prompts such as click on this hyperlink be placed. Should they all be placed at the same x coordinate on every slide. Or should be placed next to the item you are asking to the click?
What is the standard best practice?
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In this example, the audience is likely young men and woman, but still mostly young men. This learning has been designed with that audience in mind. The interface is essentially a graphic novel (comic book).
Consider who your audience is. What types of user interfaces are they used to already? Instead of selecting interface elements that are new or different for them, choose something familiar.
I agree with Lieve’s opinion that it’s the learning experience that should take the priority. There are countless articles on the user experience that each state one specific way is the best when identifying hotspots and links. Personally, I would also ignore anything that says you should do one specific thing because it’s the new trendy thing (with the sole exception that the trend actually fits your needs.)
When creating an online training I’m always thinking about the user’s experience and how they’re going to interpret everything they see, even down to the non-interactive things on slides. The quote, which is completely true, is, “A user interface is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it’s not that good.” This is also true for how things appear in your online training. If the appearance of something isn’t intuitive regarding what it is and does, then you’re reducing the effectiveness of the content. Users shouldn’t have to question what they need to do or where something is.
When I’m in doubt about how something will be viewed and interpreted, I like to create a few simple variations and get feedback from people that aren’t involved in the development. I’ve had many instances where I thought something was clear and I found out during testing that it was not.
Most natural is the best way for any learner, in this case: close to the hotspot/link and maybe even emphasized by an effect or an arrow. Same coordinates may look better for the design, but it is the learning experience that should have priority. That is my personal opinion.
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