10 Tips for Using Graphics in e-Learning-SyberWorks Article Series

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10 Tips For Using Graphics in e-Learning

By Al Lemieux, Senior Designer, SyberWorks, Inc.

I think we would all agree that e-Learning courses benefit from graphics , even if the topic you are presenting is dry. Nobody likes to read large amounts of text on-screen. Using graphics to break up text gives the eye something to rest on before continuing to read. Below are some tips for using graphics in e-Learning development , so without any further adieu, let’s get started.

1. Graphic Size

Sure, you may want to make your course more inviting by adding graphics, but don’t go overboard! Depending on your audience, you may have users with slow connections or older hardware. You’ll want to deliver your course content to them as quickly as possible, and adding hi-resolution graphics will only slow things down.

Be sure to optimize all of your graphics so that they load quickly.

Use Photoshop or Fireworks to squeeze down the size of your images.

Be sure that you are using the right formats for your images.

Try not to crowd pages with multiple graphics

Avoid images that strongly contrast with their surroundings.

If you are using a continuous-tone photograph, be sure to save the file as a JPEG (Joint Photography Experts Group). JPEG compression can bring a weighty image down in size. The downside to JPEGs is that the compression scheme that is built into the file format (what makes the file size smaller) is lossy, meaning that the more compression you apply, the more image quality you sacrifice. There’s a fine balance between file size and quality, so make image files as small as possible, while still looking crisp.

Any flat graphics, charts, and graphs with solid colors should be saved as GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) files. The algorithm in the ...

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