How to Notify Learners When to Click the Next Button in E-Learning #293

I think that we might be a little biased because we know the challenge is to create a next button and thus, we're going to be on the lookout for it. I also think that our ability to quickly identify the next button is due to our experience with e-learning and having seen many examples of course navigation. This is definitely not the case for all audiences and I find that I usually err on the side of making things explicit, just in case. However, I thought that the images you used in the first and second examples (door handle, arrow) and way you used animation and bright text to catch the viewer's attention in the third example worked well here to prompt the viewer to interact with those pieces.

Like everyone else, I didn't even know the timer was there and stayed on each slide for under ten seconds. I love the idea behind it and how the animations were subtle enough to catch your eye.

I would say that the amount of time on the timer should be dependent on the amount of content on the slide. I usually time how long it takes for me to process the slide content to approximate the timing of animations like these. I thought that 10 seconds for each slide was appropriate for your demo, Jonathan.

This was a great question and thanks for prompting an interesting discussion! For my demo this week, I tried to use subtle animations for my buttons but ended up labeling them for clarity because I didn't think they were intuitive enough. I'm considering going back and seeing if I can improve my demo. (Maybe adding a brief timer before the labels pop up!)

Thanks Katelin, yes, maybe so -- it's definitely an experimental piece.

Do you though? I knew once I saw the images what I need to click on to move on to the next slide. I also noticed my mouse cursor changing which let me know that I could click, and we all love clicking and seeing where it takes us. :)

Appreciate your feedback Kristi. You may be surprised to learn this demo contains a 10 second timer on each interaction, which highlights the next button if you do not identify it in that time. When you say a 'couple of them had me pause', which ones in particular, could I ask? Would you say you spent more than 10 seconds finding each one?

Appreciate your take Nancy. There's definitely a tension between making next buttons obvious but unobtrusive and in keeping with tone/theme of your course.

For what it's worth, I use a standardised button set across my courses usually, but it's telling when watching users how they 'hover' over where they anticipate the next button will appear, especially in NEXTCHA style interactions, so there's definitely also merit in changing it up once in a while. In those circumstances, techniques to draw attention to the next button become all the more important.

I would agree with Nancy here I don't like calling out the big red Next button ever.

You have already lost the battle if your design is not intuitive and fails to follow web standards.

I once told a client who asked me to do it:

"Your staff have navigated the awful UI of your LMS to load the course I developed for you. If they cannot use a simple forward and back button they shouldn't be set loose on the internet".

I have started and stopped three entries for this challenge because of these reasons.

I would call out no standard navigation in a nudging fashion, my normal approach is if something comes out during review as they don't know what to do next then I need to look better at the UI/UX rather than call it out. A next button is really just a big call to action and should be obvious.

That said I may have to do an entry now.