Since I plunged into E-Learning, I have seen a tendency to move the content to call out as the easiest sought after solution. This not even creates a non-illustrious course, but clashes with the basics of simple e-learning rules.
Today we shall discuss some key points about using call outs.
1. Keep it close and tight!
A call out must be exact fit, and of a size that you don’t have to move your eyes across the screen to read the full content.
If you want to spread the content across the screen, better put it out of the box.
2. Maintain a safe distance:
We get it when you point the beak to a person’s face from some distance. No need to touch the beak to the mouth.
Remember! It is better to co-ordinate between the call out and the character, when the lowest relative place a call out can go is the level of the shoulder of the character. [But you may vary this rule depending on the situation]
3. Do not exceed maximum capacity. Unload the extra content to stay afloat:
Call out depicts conversation. So similar to a conversation, it should be done in bits and pieces, as well. You don’t like a person on a speaking spree, do you? So do the learners J.
Also it is NOT a good idea to load a single person on a screen with multiple callouts, that fade in and fade out. At the end of the timeline, you are left with nothing as a takeaway from the screen
Instead of these we can break a conversation like these:
These conversations always stay on the screen and learner can refer to them without worrying about tuning the seekbar.
BONUS TIP: White is the best color!
I, as a learner, can live with a screen with a colored background. May be it adds flavor to the bland white screen. But when I am looking at a call out, I just want to READ the bit-strip. So, all the color splash, OUTSIDE the box please!
Now, let’s use call outs in a different manner from now on! Shall we?