How do you keep e-learning courses engaging without overwhelming learners?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been building courses in Storyline for a corporate client, and I keep running into the balance problem: how to keep the modules engaging without making them feel cluttered or distracting.

For example, they want me to add more interactivity (click-to-reveal, branching scenarios, gamified quizzes), but at the same time, the content is already pretty dense. I don’t want learners to get lost in navigation or feel like they’re clicking forever just to move forward.

I’d love to hear how others approach this. Do you have a rule of thumb for when to use interactivity vs. keeping it simple? How do you convince stakeholders that sometimes less is more in design?

Curious to hear real examples of what’s worked for you!