Usability guru Jakob Nielsen’s work has significantly helped advance web design over that last 10-15 years. When it comes to practical usability insights and research, Jakob and team are some of the top leaders. Although he primarily focuses on website layout and design, his insights and resources can easily be used for learning design. I use his site and cite his research often when I work with clients to determine visual strategy and page layout for asynchronous solutions like wikis, discussion boards, intranet training sites, communities of practice, eLearning courses, e-manuals, job aids, or interactive Help/Tutorial sections in applications to name a few.  In fact I use this and other usability sites (usability.gov, upa)  when ever possible. Helps the design process seem less like magic or random and more reasoned. Typical thing I tell clients: let’s make this solution so engaging learners/users won’t be able to get enough of it. It will be like….like learning candy.  (I know…sounds hokey…but, hey…everyone has their quirks.)

Here are some basic design rules I use to ensure maximum usability that are supported by his research:

1–Ensure all priortized information is located in the upper left corner of the page or screen.  Have you heard of the F-pattern?

2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2–2—-2–For eLearning courses, keep word count down to 50 words or less (non-audio enabled eLearning) and 15 or less for audio-enabled). See writing for the web.

3–For eLearning such as e-manuals, how-to guides, follow-along tutorials, use BIG font headers and bulleted lists that begin with action words or information-carrying words. See implications for F-Pattern.

4–For web-site solutions like wikis, discussion boards, intranet training, don’t spend time/money creating long pages of content–minimize the scroll;  avoid a ton of columned sections and don’t spend a ton of time on banners particularly those on the right side of the screen.  See link in #3.

5–Clearly determine the mode of engagement. Do the learners need to be passive to understand complexities of content/messaging or do they need to be active? See this.

What are some of your usability rules?