Don’t let the title of this blog fool you! While all L&D professionals want to create learning experiences that are engaging and easily digestible for their learners, it’s no easy feat. When we think about ways in which we can make L&D easy for our learners, approaching design with the learner as the center of all that we do is important. Taking a learner-centered design approach helps L&D professionals leverage their understanding of the organization’s training needs and goals, while prioritizing the learners throughout the experience.

We can embrace learner-centered design by focusing on infrastructure and content. In this blog, I will present four strategies L&D professionals can use to help make L&D easy. While we can’t account for each learner’s individual preferences when designing workplace learning, we can try to put ourselves in our learners’ shoes and think about how they’re going to access the content and digest it.

1. Navigation

We can design the best training content, but it won’t make an impact if learners can’t find it. One way we can make L&D easy for our learners when designing workplace learning — particularly eLearning experiences ­– is to envision how learners will navigate the content. Instructional designers can support their learners by prioritizing intuitive navigation in the design of their courses or learning platforms. One key aspect of intuitive navigation is creating a clear and organized structure that allows learners to easily access different sections of the course. This includes a logical flow of content, with clearly labeled modules.

When navigation elements remain consistent across different pages and sections, learners can rely on familiar cues to guide them through the course, reducing confusion and enhancing the overall learning experience. Features such as a search bar, bookmarks, and progress bars can also help learners locate specific content and keep track of what they have already covered. This helps learners track their progress and easily navigate to previous or next sections.

2. Responsive and accessible design

L&D professionals can support their learners by embracing responsive design, which ensures that learning experiences adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes and devices. To achieve this, designers should use flexible layouts and scalable images to create content that responds to the learner’s device, whether it’s a desktop, tablet, or smartphone. This may involve simplifying navigation menus and focusing on essential content that’s easily readable on smaller displays. By ensuring that the course remains functional and user-friendly on all devices, L&D professionals can cater to learners who may access the material on the go or from different environments.

Incorporating design principles that support accessibility is another way to make L&D easy for learners. L&D professionals should adhere to established accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), to create content that is usable by individuals with disabilities. This includes providing alternative text for images, offering captions and transcripts for audio and video content, and ensuring keyboard navigation is possible for users who cannot use a mouse.

3. Minimize cognitive load

To minimize cognitive load and support their learners effectively, L&D professionals should focus on structuring content in a way that’s easy to digest and process. One strategy is to break down complex information into smaller, more manageable units. By organizing content into logical groups or sections, learners can better absorb and retain information. This approach reduces the mental effort required to process large amounts of information at once and helps learners focus on one topic at a time.

Another approach to minimize cognitive load is to use clear and concise language throughout the learning experience. L&D professionals should avoid jargon and overly complex terms, instead opting for straightforward explanations and examples that make concepts accessible to learners. Visual aids such as diagrams, charts, and infographics can enhance understanding by illustrating key ideas, allowing learners to process information more efficiently.

4. Allow for personalization

L&D professionals can incorporate personalization to support their learners by allowing them to tailor their learning experiences to their unique needs. One way to achieve this is by offering customizable learning paths, where learners can choose topics or modules based on their interests and goals. By allowing learners to focus on the content most relevant to them, L&D professionals can increase engagement and motivation, leading to more effective learning outcomes.

Making L&D easy for learners starts with a learner-centered design approach. This can be achieved by prioritizing intuitive navigation, embracing responsive and accessible design, minimizing cognitive load, and allowing for personalization. By implementing these strategies, L&D professionals can create engaging and easily digestible learning experiences that cater to the needs of their learners, and the goals of their organizations.