10 design mistakes that can mess up your online course

Inappropriate design can even make the most valuable and interesting content hard to comprehend.

In his book titled How Design Makes the World, the designer Scott Berkun quotes the book design expert Douglas Martin: “The question whether the design is necessary and whether there is any budget provided for it makes absolutely no sense. The design is essential. The alternative to good design is bad design rather than nothing.”   

The same is true for online course design. First of all, according to one of the UX design principles, users often see aesthetically nice design as more user-friendly. Secondly, users are becoming more visually experienced in the digital space. We are surrounded by fancy mobile apps and websites, so when someone is about to complete a course he is also expecting to see nice design.

 So let’s talk about mistakes in online course design that can sometimes be made even by experienced designers. And we will discuss how they can be avoided.

Mistake 1 Different font size for different blocks or slides

When designing a course, designers and developers can sometimes use different font size on different slides to cover the entire slide or screen. They tend to increase the font size when the text is short or decrease it when there is a lot of text. Imagine reading a book where the font size is different on every page. Will it be easy to read such text? Probably not.

 Don’t make the following mistake:

The same rule should be followed for the slide course layout: the same font size must be used for main text, headings and subheadings. It is important to follow the slide size. For example, when the resolution is 1920 × 1080, the minimum font size that I use is 20–26. When there is a lot of text on a slide, it is better to transform it into interactive format (i.e. when some information provided on a slide is hidden in tabs) or divide the information into two slides.

 Follow the example below:

Mistake 2 Many different font colors and types

When you use a lot of different font colors and types in your course, this can also make the information hard to comprehend. Every new element will add to the visual noise and the learner will find it harder to concentrate on the content.

 Don’t make the following mistake:

To avoid this mistake, it is better to use only two font types (one for the headings and one for the main text). As far as the number of font colors is concerned, the palette of the slide can be either monochromatic or contrasting, but you should not use more than two accent colors. Have a look at what I got.

 Follow the example below:

Mistake 3 Center text alignment

It is best to use left text alignment for the layout. This format is easier to read than center-aligned or randomly arranged text. Justified alignment can also make it difficult to read the text due to uneven spacing between words or dangling prepositions.

Don’t make the following mistake:

Left alignment of all text blocks creates an invisible straight line on the left. The learner can easily see where the next row begins simply by turning his eyes to the left and the reading process becomes easy and fast.

 Follow the example below:

Mistake 4 Images covering nearly the entire slide

When I worked for a furniture company, my fellow designer who was helping me with presentation format suggested that we should delete some information that did not properly fit with the layout.

The example below shows that the designer added a large image that covered most of the slide and the text could not fit in completely. As a result, scrolling had to be applied and that involved additional manipulations for the user who read the text.

Don’t make the following mistake:

Certainly, there are slides where the image is the key element and the text plays an auxiliary role (e.g. graphs, diagrams or images showing a certain process or mechanism). We should focus on the image in this case. However, if we intend to provide the key message in the text, the design and the layout must not interfere with the content. In these cases, the main part of the slide is the text and the image is supposed to complement rather than replace it.

Follow the example below:

Mistake 5 Incorrectly cropped images

According to the How Design Makes the World, you will never pay attention to good design. On the other hand, if you spot something that is wrong, it must be the designer’s mistake. The same refers to images showing characters with cropped legs, for example. It looks strange and the user will definitely take notice of that.

Don’t make the following mistake:

What can you do? You can add a stroke to the character or create an autoshape background.

Follow the example below:

Mistake 6 Low contrast

Colors can be used to “illuminate” or highlight information. For instance, the example below shows a list of contents with the highlighted section that the user is currently reading. However, the designer used a color, which was almost the same as the basic one.

 Don’t make the following mistake:

The contrast of your screen might be different to that of the student’s screen. This is why it is better to use contrasting colors for highlighting. That way you can easily spot the difference.

Follow the example below:

Mistake 7 Information is misarranged across the slide

Information on a slide is read from top to bottom and from left to right. For this reason, information must be arranged in that particular order.

In the example below, the learner will see the answers before the actual question. That will cause confusion and make the slide hard to understand.

Don’t make the following mistake:

To correct this mistake, just swap the question and the possible answers around.

Follow the example below:

Mistake 8 Lack of space for the text

When you go to a clothes store, how quickly can you tell whether it belongs to economy or premium price segment? You will most likely be able to do it immediately. At a mass market, clothes will occupy most of the space and all the hangers and shelves are literally stuffed with them. At an expensive branded store, on the other hand, every item is provided with enough space so that it can show itself to the best advantage.

The same refers to slide design. Slides that provide little space tend to look cheap and the displayed text sticks to the margin. It looks as though the designer saved on his slides and tried to fill each slide with as much information as possible.

Don’t make the following mistake:

You can provide more space on the slide to make the design look “more expensive”.

Follow the example below:

Mistake 9 Different layout styles

Another sign of “cheap” design is using different layout styles. This includes different rounding radius applied to different elements, varying thickness of contour lines and so on. In the example below, the text block and the menu bar have a larger rounding radius compared to the buttons on the left. The button contours are also different. The slide looks messy because of all that.

Don’t make the following mistake:

Try to find some time for straightening the rounded parts and putting all the elements in order. The user will appreciate that.

 Follow the example below:

Mistake 10 Misaligned objects

An inexperienced user cannot exactly explain what is wrong with the slide at first sight but he will definitely feel that something is not right.

The devil is in the details. In the example below, the text inside the colored blocks is misaligned.

Don’t make the following mistake:

By aligning the text inside the bubbles to the left and right margins, you can make the slide look neater.

Follow the example below: