10 Ways Colors can Transform your eLearning

Have you noticed how animation films use color extensively? Why is color so important? Here are 10 ways color can make your eLearning courses a pleasure.

Colors play a big role in animation. In our eLearning courses, we use color palettes to define tone, lighting, emotion, and mood of the course. Finding Nemo is set underwater. What shades of blue to use? How to convey emotions in such a dark space? How to ensure that the main characters stand out? By rendering a few keyframes from the storyboard, color scripts bring these aspects to the forefront for the team to discuss.

Here are 10 ways we use color in our courses.
Quick Visual Search: Our brains are wired to understand color-coded information quickly- however complicated it might be. Crisscrossing grids of metro maps are easy to read because they are color coded.

Object Identification: We identify objects better when they reflect what we see in real life. A flamingo painted purple confuses our brain because we expect flamingoes to be pink. However, we sometimes use this dissonance to draw attention.

Emphasis: In our eLearning courses, a section highlighted using color shouts out to the brain that it is the most important piece on the screen.

Conveys Structure: Arranging sections of eLearning modules by color gives the user a sense of cohesion.

Establishes Identity: We use color to ensure that our courses are aligned to your brand identity.

Symbolism: Color can also be used to convey feelings and emotions. To make an eLearning module fun, we add more vibrant colors. Yellow-colored Pikachu became Pokemon’s mascot because it was endearing to children.

Improves Usability: In eLearning courses, ‘call to action’ buttons are made in stand-out colors so that the eye is drawn to it immediately.

Mood Setting: The emotions that a bright blue sky or dark grey clouds evoke, are a function of color. We use the same principles in our eLearning solutions.

Shows Associations: When there is a lot of information to map out, we use color to compartmentalize content, and show their relation to each other.

Express Metaphors: In animation films, color is used to express metaphors like ‘green with envy’, or ‘feeling blue’.

Colors are all around us. But its power to enable learning is often underrated. We’ve seen that when the color scheme is thought through, the result is always richer, and more engaging.