Standard "Branding" Across Authoring Tools

Standards could restrict creativity, but it could also speed up the process because it will provide you and your team with a reference to develop your courses.  I started a discussion on style guides a while ago, you might want to check it out so you can get an idea on where to start.

http://community.articulate.com/forums/p/30281/164337.aspx#164337

Thanks Jerson. That thread definitely offered some good resources and gave me a lot of ideas. Will still take some compiling to create exactly what we need.

I can see where this approach is helpful, but I want to avoid having these extremely long documents as guides. Giving people criteria from which to base decisions rather than teaching people exactly what to do in each combination of scenarios seems more reasonable to me. I mean, that's what training professionals are hired for, right? We know the criteria and we are trusted to apply it effectively (obviously, this is going beyond the company branding aspect and more into the design restrictions).

I think a tiered approach to manage this information would help limit length as well. For example, simply hold everyone accountable for being familiar with our color palette, fonts, etc. that are already defined in our company's robust, readily available marketing site, then define the major e-learning aspects that are not accounted for that we want everyone to be aware of and follow, leaving the more specific aspects up to the designer's discretion.

Anyway, just my thoughts on the approach but nevertheless, since I need to take a stab at, I appreciate your help!

I think it is really important to review this from the user's point of view. Because in the end what should really matter here is did the person learn what they needed to and were they able to apply it. Sometimes consistency can help if you have the same learners across different modules so they don't have to spend time learning the tool and can focus on the material. It might feel like it is not as creative, but in general the purpose isn't to be creative but to have the person on the other side of the computer screen end up able to do something or do something better. 

(We have run into this when we try something new and creative, it is cool and fun, but often less effective until they get used to it.)

When I originally was looking for some examples like this, it was more to see what other companies thought the best practices were for creating eLearning. I wanted to find out what seemed like the most common fonts used, sizes, colors for best readability, etc. But if you are working in a corporate environment, something like this should be a must. The courses you create are an extension of your company and it's image and it's good practice to keep that image consistent.  By not having to focus on trying to be creative and come up with unique designs, you can focus on whats important, the content.