Category: design

  • Tips to Not Suck as A Presenter

    A few months ago, I wrote a post on Tips to Stop Sucking at PowerPoint. But as we all know, you may have the  snazziest presentation on the block, but you’re only half-way there. You, yourself, have to bring your A game. In other words, you have to offer the total package. Clive Shepherd shares…

  • I Know What Learners Need

    Last Saturday, I was talking with a past colleague and good friend Virginie, an instructional designer working in the field for 10 years now. We talked about some of the struggles we go through in this profession. We tried to pin point what was the one character quality that all instructional designers should have. We both agreed…

  • Enhancing Our Creativity by Tackling Others Challenges

    In a recent research report published in the Personality and social psychology bulletin, Polman and Emich demonstrate how when we make decisions for others, we are going to make decisions that are more creative than the ones we make for ourselves. This is just the latest extension of research into construal level theory, an intriguing…

  • Which Content Curation Tool is Right for You?

    Managing all the content that comes at us can get overwhelming. We can set up systems to tag, categorize, filter, sort, organize and essentially manage content at various levels. And once we’ve sifted through all the content that is sent to us, and we’ve decided what it is that we want to share, how do…

  • Do Your Users Understand Your Content?

    Not only is this blog post by Angela Colter a great reflection piece on the difference between liking content and understanding it, it also is chock full of tools to help you analyse your content and better it. In addition, the pros and cons of these tools are outlined. Though primarily targeted at Websites, this…

  • Tips to Stop Sucking at PowerPoint

    The title is bold and direct, I know. I like it actually, because when a PowerPoint presentation sucks, it really, really sucks. So sometimes, we just have to call it what it is. YOU SUCK AT POWERPOINT! The bottom line is that we cannot escape PowerPoint in today’s business and/or academic world. And as Jessee…

  • Innovation: The Top 50 Inventions of the Past 50 Years

    Absolutely fascinating. Of course the jet airplane and in-vitro fertilization are there. But what surprised me was that GPS technology is around since 1978! And even more surprising, to find high-yield rice. You *do* learn something new every day! To select the 50 most pioneering inventions of the past 50 years, PM consulted 25 authorities…

  • How Some HR & Training Professionals are Informing their Practice with Research

    Last night I attended a CSTD event focussing on how Research Meets Practice and how some HR & Training Professionals are informing their practice with research. I personally attended 3 of the 5 sessions (which was the formula for the evening). Dali Hammouch, Senior Advisor-Capability Development, Rio Tinto, discussed on the impact of space on…

  • Brushing Up On Your User Experience Design Skills? Take A Look At These Books

    Yesterday I wrote about the importance of user experience design testing as part of the overall eLearning course testing process. Paul Seys compiled a fantastic list of books on user experience design (or UX). Borrowing mainly from Web and multimedia design best practices, much of this can inform the design of your online learning environments…

  • Taking Into Account User Experience In Your E-learning Design

    Two months ago, Tom Kuhlmann wrote a piece on the importance of thoroughly reviewing your e-learning courses before launching them. One of his key tips was to watch learners go through the course in order to understand how they experience it. Web and multimedia designers call this user experience design testing. ZURB, a team of…