Overview

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By the end of this course, you'll be able to apply professional design principles to your remote trainings, even if you've never thought of yourself as a designer. You'll identify the building blocks of visual design, guide your learners' attention with hierarchy, choose and pair fonts for readability, build accessible color palettes, use negative space and balance with intention, group related content for meaning, and document it all in a style guide that keeps an entire course consistent. Great remote training isn't just about what you say; it's about how learners see it. Visuals shape engagement, motivation, and how much people actually remember, and this course turns that insight into practical techniques you can apply immediately to the trainings you're already building. What makes it unique is its focus on the non-designer. Led by graphic designer and instructional design expert Robin Lindblom, every lesson ends with a small, doable action, so you're improving real projects as you learn, not just collecting theory. If you want trainings that engage learners instead of boring them, this is your starting point.

Syllabus

Introduction to Visual Design
- Strong visuals are what turn a forgettable remote training into one learners actually absorb and remember. In this module, you'll identify the core elements of visual design and apply practical principles for choosing, placing, and pairing visuals so your content connects and sticks.
Visual Hierarchy
- When everything on a page competes for attention, nothing gets it, and your learners are left guessing where to look. In this module, you'll apply hierarchy techniques like size, color, and contrast to guide the eye through your content in exactly the order you intend.
Typography Basics
- The fonts you choose and how you format them can quietly make or break whether learners actually read your content. In this module, you'll select and pair fonts, format text for readability, and replace common typography mistakes with choices that keep your message clear.
Color Etiquette
- Color shapes emotion, focus, and even who can access your training in the first place. In this module, you'll create effective contrast and apply proven color strategies so you can build palettes that are both engaging and accessible.
Negative Space
- Empty space isn't wasted space; it's one of the most powerful tools for focusing a learner's attention. In this module, you'll apply negative space to cut visual noise and give your most important elements room to breathe.
Visual Balance
- A balanced layout feels stable and complete, while an unbalanced one quietly makes learners uneasy about where to look. In this module, you'll apply symmetrical and asymmetrical balance using size, color, and weight so your layouts feel cohesive and comfortable.
Grouping Effect
- How you cluster elements on a page tells learners what belongs together, often before they read a single word. In this module, you'll apply grouping principles like boundary, connectedness, and proximity so learners perceive your content in the meaningful units you intended.
Style Guides
- Inconsistent fonts, colors, and layouts quietly erode learner confidence and slow down everyone building your training. In this module, you'll build a style guide that documents your design decisions so you can keep an entire course consistent and save time along the way.