How to Make the Most of Your Media Budget
Have you ever looked at a page, and it's just a wall of text that immediately fills you with dread? Media is often an overlooked part of Instructional Design.
What value does graphic design (GD) bring to learning design? How do you go about using graphic design within your work?
Continue reading to learn how to enhance your course with graphic design, no matter the budget size or time constraint!
Value
Graphic design provides:
- Visual hierarchy of content – Creating a layout that is easy to scan to grasp content and know where to focus using design principles.
- Consistency – Maintaining look and feel, aligning with branding guidelines, creating a cohesive product, and considering the cognitive load of the design (learners knowing what to expect).
- Engagement – Creates an immersive learning experience, visual interest, and a sense of fun and enjoyment.
- Opportunity for teamwork and collaboration – Creates a collaborative working environment that involves all team members and their specialties, where everyone understands the vision/goal, and allows for more innovation, and creative problem solving.
Note
The following is a potential process that is being used by the Learning Services team at D2L as they design courses for clients. This is just an example – use what works best for you and your organization!
Potential Process
Before
- Scope
- Make sure you have a clear understanding of the project and budget you're working with
- Check with client or subject matter expert
- See if they have any media ideas or priorities in mind
- Connect with GD
- Check to ensure GD has branding guidelines
- Provide project and client context to consider
During
- Content review
- Review your content and start building/designing
- Begin a Media Brainstorming document to record ideas
- Collaborate and brainstorm with media – What is possible?
- Choose a couple of items to get started
- Don’t use your entire budget at the start of the project – pace yourself as you work through the content
- Check with client or subject matter expert
- Collaborate throughout the creation
- Add media into the course, and make sure you let the GD see their hard work in action!
- Client or subject matter expert review and feedback
End
- Scope
- Determine how much of the budget is left. Don't let it go to waste!
- If you have any remaining, reference back to Media Brainstorming document
- Check-in with Media to see what is possible with budget remaining
- Identify final ideas
- Check with client or subject matter expert
- Collaborate throughout the creation
- Add media into the course, and make sure you let the GD see their hard work in action!
- Client or subject matter expert review and feedback
Tips
The following are tips to consider when incorporating GD into your learning designs:
- Avoid GDs going into a project blind. There needs to be some guidance to provide the big picture of the project and any relevant client or subject matter expert information (e.g., vision, priorities).
- Record all notes and maintain documentation when brainstorming and having discussions with media – keeps information clear when working on multiple projects and have a bank of ideas to reference back to.
- Collaborate with everyone on the team and take advantage of all specialties.
- Get GDs into the course looking at the content and seeing their work in action.
Takeaway
Graphic Design doesn't have to cost a lot of hours to be great and add value to a course. Dream big and collaborate to see what is possible!
Comments
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@Maggie.E.196 Thank you for collaborating with me to write this article. Special shoutout to your awesome banner, too!