eLearning-related Design Trends: What Non-Designers Need To Know

Additional Resources

During my presentation I referenced a number of resources that you can use to learn more about graphic design trends. To make your life easier, I've collected them all here.

The Actual Slide Deck

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Click here to download a copy of the slide deck I used for this presentation. The deck also includes my full speakers notes:

  • The original PowerPoint presentation (2014)
  • Updated deck! If you participated in the January 21st, 2015 session, you saw a new version of this presentation. Feel free to check out this reworked PPT deck.
  • Want to watch a video of me giving this talk? You now can thanks to the eLearning Guild's recording of my January 2015 webinar session (you'll need to be logged in to their site to view the video, but even free accounts have access to this content).

Flat vs Realism

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  • Did this presentation make you even more curious about the idea of skeuomorphism? Then you should check out this article to find out more about why it's not nearly as awful as some people think.
  • Want an intro to flat design and realism that's ALSO a fighting game? Check this link out.
  • In the presentation I talked about one of my favourite apps: Paper by 53. I strongly mention checking it out both if you want to see a good example of realism done right or if you just want a simple but effective drawing app. On a related note, I finally broke down and bought their stylus, Pencil, and love it. It's just fantastic for drawing with!

Amateur Video

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  • A great resource for building your video skills is Jonathan Halls. He's great at explaining how to write and produce your own videos in easy to follow steps, so if you ever get a chance to see him speak, take advantage of it. Here's a link to the resources he provided from his ASTD TK14 presentation on developing video for learning.

Infographics

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  • For a thorough look at making infographics, be sure to check out the resources page for my in-depth infographics presentation.
  • Awesome thing I just found out: the Cool Infographics website now has a tools page that lists a wide range of sites and software that you can use to put together your own infographics!
  • On a related note, I like collecting amusing infographics for inspiration on this Pinterest board.
  • I also have a related Pinterest collection of... well... NOT-so-inspiring bad infographics (unless you count them as inspiring me not to make bad ones)!

Keeping On Top Of Future Trends

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Okay, this is the section that I'm actually going to continually add to as I find new sources I think people would enjoy.

Books on design that are great for non-designers:
  • White Space is Not Your Enemy is a fantastic book on design basics by Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen. Here are links to it in the US, Canada, and UK Amazon stores.
  • The book Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds is actually about presentations, but it has some fantastic insight into simplifying your graphics that can honestly be applied to any design project. Here are links to it in the US, Canada, and UK Amazon stores.
  • Information is Beautiful by David McCandless appears to be out of print right now, but if you happen to bump into a copy it's well worth picking up. It's a lovely collection of excellent data visualization.
  • The Visual Miscellaneum is another excellent infographic book by David McCandless, but this one is actually still in print. Here are links to it in the US, Canada, and UK Amazon stores.
  • Cool Infographics by Randy Krum gives all the details on why infographics work and how you can make them on your own. It does a nice job of further breaking down many of the topics from this talk. Here are links to it in the US, Canada, and UK Amazon stores.

Magazines and blogs that are great for inspiration

People I follow on Twitter who share content on design (and design-related fields) regularly

Extras

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