If you’ve designed learning design solutions or managed learning design strategy and implementation, whether it be a blended learning curriculum, in-person class, highly interactive e-Learning simulation, learning management system or performance support application, I know you experienced it. Your client thinks their content is the number one reason the learner will stay engaged and ultimately use the product, tool, complete the course, experience or session.
It’s simply isn’t true. Learners and users complete a course, training or use a learning application or tool because of many motivators but it is rarely because the content is simply irresistible…. interesting or completely compelling. Have you heard this before?:  ”Forget about the pretty graphics strategy or content design,  just put the content out there. The learners are accustomed to PowerPoint. The facilitators can just read the slides. It’s really about the content, that’s what the participants really care about.”
I’ve seen this kind of thinking over and over again. Clients think that learners/users have ascended upon the learning experience/product simply because the want to learn more. In a large way, the client is completely right. Why else would they take the course? Because my clients are brilliant (I’m not being sarcastic here. They are.), they know the answer to this as well. Learners are motivated to complete the training or application because of other factors like: their managers expect them to complete the training; it’s part of their work requirements; they’re trying to improve the work performance. We’re talking about actions driven by motivations….call them pressure points if you will. Because there are real pressure-related reasons folks complete training, their mindset is quite different. Rather than entering a training or using a tool (whether online or in-person) with slow-motion nirvana-like glee running across a field of pansies, they enter with fast-twitch motion of a squirrel wanting to complete the learning requirements as easily and quickly as possible. As Jakob Nielsen, recently commented about users: “Users don’t care about design for its own sake; they just want to get things done and get out. Normal people don’t love sitting at their computers. They’d rather watch football, walk the dog — just about anything else. Using a computer probably rates above taking out the trash, though. When people are visiting websites or using applications, they don’t spend their time analyzing or admiring the design. They focus their attention on the task, the content, and their own data or documents.” (To be fair, this quote is part of Jakob’s premise of why users want familiar design. Although it is a slightly different topic, I thought this particular section apropos because it so adequately describes common thinking about users.) I couldn’t agree more. So some key questions are: how to make the squirrels happy? And how to do this rapidly?

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy.

When a designer/strategist finds themselves dealing with a client that is telling them to forget about the design and focus on the content, they hit the preverbal fork in the road. Does he/she completely listen to the client and do what they want knowing the outcome really won’t help the learners/users feel like their time was wisely spent? or do they explain how the value of the design will make the learner/user feel like the solution was useful and possibly risk appearing defensive or lacking collaborative spirit particularly if the designer/strategist is working with an pressured sponsor or stakeholder?

Sound familiar?  How to avoid it? Although I’m an optimist, I’ve realized the paradox of “you asked me to ensure learner engagement in the solution or initiative yet, I shouldn’t be concerned about really engaging the learner/user because…”we just really need to get the content out there” simply won’t ever go away. There will always be a client that will have this reaction. It’s the nature of the business of learning. The best that can be done is to minimize the dynamic and the whip-like damage this conversation can have to a business relationship, a project team, even a designer’s/strategist’s reputation.

Some consulting suggestions:
–Use a consulting strategy that underscores business savvy: “I know time and cost are drivers. Let’s focus on X in this phase and when there is more time and money later, think about ABC to increase chances the learner will feel this is useful to them.”
–Ground the client in understanding that the learning solution does not motivate learners, learners are motivated by the reasons why they are taking the training in the first place.
–Learning solutions are not the end all but the means to the end; an end that is ultimately controlled by the learner’s manager. Manager support ultimately controls how useful the learning will be. Want the learning to have high impact? Get the managers involved.
–Test prototypes or design iterations with actual users and not just sponsors or stakeholders as you go; create a feedback loop so the learners/users can reflect to all how useful they think the solution will be. (yes! This can be rapid….2-5 users testing even paper-prototype works.)
–Ask the client to describe the level of impact (usefulness) they would like to see for their users. Use this agreement as the parameter(s) of design specifications.

Some rapid design suggestions to Make Content Slightly More Useful (in the face of extremely tight timelines and budgets):
1–Graphically depict the learning path for the learner so they clearly see what they will learn throughout the experience.
2–Use simple animations that focus the learner’s attention on simple aspects of the process or information, one part at a time.
3–Use passive review techniques like open-ended questions learners would ask themselves as they learn
4–Graphically describe to the learner what they have learned when they have learned it. Example: Progress bars, feedback dialog bubbles
5–Create simple real-world examples or scenarios that relate the importance of the content to the learner/users job (suggestion from Jeff–thanks!)

What tactics have you used?