More is better: Address multiple learning styles

Designing for multiple learning styles

As a teacher, I’ve learned that people need information presented to them in different ways. This knowledge has made me a much more effective designer. I used to assume that everyone would respond to pictures and words in the same way I do. For example, when my son was younger, I used to forbid him to listen to music while he did his homework. I felt that it was too distracting and that it prevented him from concentrating on his work. After many arguments about this, I realized that music and sound of any kind was distracting to me so I assumed it was the same for him. In fact, I discovered that he does a much better job of focusing on his homework when he’s listening to music than when it is quiet. I realized that he doesn’t learn the same way as me.

As a designer, why should you care about learning styles? It seems obvious why a teacher would care about understanding learning styles. She wants to present her curriculum in as many ways as possible to reach all the learners in her classroom. But even though designers aren’t teachers, they are communicators, and this is why they should understand that people receive and process information in different ways. To reach the maximum number of people in your target audience, you need to supply the information in more than one way whenever possible. A graphic designer creating a print piece can use both words and images, thereby reaching at least the visual and verbal people. Print pieces that have tactile or interactive qualities such as flipbooks, diecuts, pop-ups, or embossing would more effectively reach the tactile/kinesthetic people. Web designers have an even greater opportunity to reach more people with their designs. They can add sound, video, interactivity, and social interaction.

Presenting information in multiple ways obviously takes more time. Ian must have spent an enormous amount of time creating his shoelace site. But that time was well spent. Just read some of the comments on his Testimonial link and you can see that he has reached a huge audience in a very effective way. Ian Fieggen has considered almost every type of learner and provided material that specifically meets their learning needs. And this is why his site is so wonderful.

Where to go from here

For more information about multiple intelligences and learning styles, see:

To check out some learning style inventories, see:

More is better: Address multiple learning styles

Table of Contents

Designing for multiple learning styles

Where to go from here