Player Overhaul

One of the things I've liked to do lately is eliminate as many rounded corners as I can and minimize the gradients in the navigation elements, tending toward making the navigation blend into the background color and the presentation / activity area stand alone. Something like this:

Can I ask why you need the logo? Surely people know who they work for or who is providing the course?

I try to limit logos to opening and closing slides and incorporate other brand elements (colours, imagery etc) through out the course. This helps to maximise the on screen real estate available.

Agree with Tristan about eliminating logo on content slides.  The learners know who they are working for, or they already know who they bought the training from.  Content slides should be for content, not advertising. 

I agree with you both regarding "content should be for content, not advertising" but my executives will likely see the logo as global branding. 

The misunderstanding (especially by executives) about the effectiveness of global branding is pretty common. Study results have indicated that repeatedly exposing someone to visuals desensitizes them to the brand. Essentially, folks will tune it out if it appears on every slide. The results also indicate that this desensitization could extend to how they feel about the mark outside of that context.

https://trainlikeachampion.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/adding-your-logo-to-a-powerpoint-presentation-can-kill-your-brand/

Gar Reynolds (Presentation Zen guy) says,

“If you must use your logo, do so only on the first slide and the last slide. Putting your logo on every slide is like shouting your name before every new thought you have.”

Using the logo on the opener and the closer is a good way to compromise. Using colors and possibly the shape hints is a good way to carry through the consistency. Problem with the old-school thought "we need them to notice the brand" is two fold:

• As mentioned above, if it's internal and folks don't know  where they work, you have a whole slew of other problems that the training at hand probably won't solve. If it's external, frankly people don't care about having your logo in their face for every moment of the experience. It doesn't help and it just might hurt.
• The purpose of training is to focus on improving capability or awareness that leads to the improvement of capability. Anything that takes away from that...  

People in charge want what they want. Doesn't make it right:)

There are a few other ways to mix it up and still provide the "thread of brand". Lots, I'm sure, that work really well. Here are a few borrowed from broadcast television.

• Use the logo as a "bug" subtly at the lower right corner during a video.
• Use lower thirds with titles of individuals at the company as they are presented.
• Use a really polished and nice introduction sequence at the start of the training. Use the Marvel Studios intros as an example. Imagine how silly folks would think it was to have the Marvel logo visible all through the movie. This polished intro is super-recognizable and consistent.

Then, tell them they are wrong!

You understand learning, they do not necessarily do so.

That's one of our responsibilities as IDs.

These are all excellent points. Thank you for the out of the box thinking and support. I often feel in corporate training it is easy to appease executives and end up with ineffective training.  

We've got your back:)

The new concept is to the ditch the traditional player concept and eliminate the rounded corners as suggested. I also intend on eliminating the global branding. I will update this group once I pitch this. 

Sounds like fun! Can't wait to see it.