Consistency and surprise

To conclude my reflections on the sessions I chaired at Learning Technologies 2013, I would like to focus on a theme developed by Itiel Dror in his presentation – the power of surprise.
Itiel’s point was that, when things become routine and commonplace, we start to ignore them. After all, we are programmed to be on the lookout for things that are changing in our environment, so we know whether to fight, run like hell, lick our lips anticipating a tasty meal or put on all our charms to entice a prospective mate – in other words, a typical day in the office.

The importance of surprise

When things around us become predictable, we can relax a little and take things at our own pace – there’s no reason to get excited. But for deeper learning to take place, we need to be emotionally engaged – not stressed out, but up for it. One of the ways to raise the attention levels is with an element of surprise.
We are surprised when we encounter something we couldn’t have predicted. Itiel is great at this: he conducts experiments with his audience which have surprising results; he’s liable at any moment to reveal a real human brain in a jar. These moments are attention-grabbing, and memorable. He contrasts this with the typical opening to a course in which you go through the agenda and list the objectives. Worthy, perhaps necessary, but not that interesting and certainly not surprising.

Surprise in e-learning? Steady on

Hollywood can teach us a thing. Remember the last Bond film you went to. Chances are it opened with a dramatic, intense action sequence, getting you on the edge of your seats from the start. The titles came later. So, why not the same with, say, an e-learning course? Open with an engaging and challenging scenario. Leave the formalities until later, by which time, with some luck and a little skill, the learner should be on the hook.

But surely consistency is a good thing

In graphic design terms, consistency is a highly-important consideration. In fact, it’s one of the factors that distinguishes professional design from the amateur. Consider the typical low-quality PowerPoint – chances are it freely mixes colours, fonts and layouts. On the other hand, when was the last time they changed the typography of your favourite newspaper – ten, twenty years ago? Consistency, particularly in terms of interface elements and general look and feel is because it provides a uniform backdrop against which more important elements – such as the content – can stand out. In fact you probably take the interface completely for granted, which is as it should be. If you doubt this point, think how difficult it must be to create a compelling ad that will command attention in Piccadilly Circus or Times Square. There simply is no backdrop – everything is screaming at you.

So why red?

So why the red opening paragraph? Because all of my previous 750 posts have been in black. Playing with the look and feel isn’t ideal, but you don’t have too many options on a blog like this. Switching to red wouldn’t have had you jumping out of your seats, but it may at least have caught your eye. And somehow it kept you there until this final paragraph. I win.

Link to original post

Leave a Reply