As someone who has been working in the e-learning industry for about three years now as both a visual designer and author of various courses, I’ve run into a few scenarios on the visual design side that I think may be of help to fellow designers.

The following are a list of common problems I’ve run into as a designer. As well as some of the ways I’ve found that seem to work best in resolving said problems.

Creating Effective Abstract Visuals:

Problem: The visuals you’re creating aren’t working in getting across the point to your audience.

Strategy: Try to brainstorm the scenario you’re tasked with visually designing for into symbols that are both simple and easy to understand for everyday individuals.

This includes using tools like looking up symbols of images on search engines, or using a pen and paper and doing some thumbnails in order to dial in your design.

If that doesn’t work, make a list of words that correspond with the idea you are trying to convey and see if that sparks some better ideas for for the visualize it.

Using Color Correctly:

Problem: Using color is hard, any designer will tell you this. Over time I’ve managed to get a much better grasp on what colors work well together, and how to implement them.

Strategy: Go back to basics, try using swatches next to each other to gauge how colors look together.

There are also some great online tools you can rely on to try out different colors together:

Adobe’s Color Wheel tool

Color Hunter – create color palettes from images

Dialing in Animation Timing:

Problem: Perfecting animation timing for training materials is crucial for a few reasons; it engages the user and can be entertaining. It can also serve as a way to move the story of the video alone. A lot of designers and companies don’t tend to have strict standards, while others do.

Strategy: Have high standards for yourself when designing motion and animation. Your clients, and your pride will thank you for it. If you don’t believe you can deliver high-quality timing, keep learning.

There are a lot of great resources out there to learn the tools and tricks you need, many completely for free online.