I'm NOT Sticking My Name on THAT!

I'm not going to make the fish joke. I've made it a hundred times so I think we can take it as read.

CARP principles are essential to any good design, especially when you need your design to share information with your audience. It is essential that information and graphic elements are cohesive, have the correct emphasis, and sit comfortably in the space. Using CARP allows me to organize my design by grouping information and elements together that reinforce a common idea and create powerful contrasts to increase the impact of the text and visuals.

As an Instructional Design professional, every time I send out any kind of materials it's important that each pixel has my professional stamp on it because, chances are, people are going to know that it's coming from me. That's when CARP becomes my best friend. CARP allows me to focus in on and remove any elements that will distract from my ultimate goal of helping someone learn something.

Of the four CARP principles, I believe that alignment is the most important to consider when designing visual materials for a webinar. Alignment hits on both the physical alignment of text and images on screen as well as the idealogical alignment between concepts, text and images. Physical alignment is something our brains are prewired to look for and when we see correct alignment, it makes our brains happy. When we see misaligned text or images arranged outside of a pattern, it creates a dissonant note that can impact our perception of what we are seeing.

When I see poor application of the principle of alignment in a webinar, it makes me question the professional authority of the presenter and their commitment to quality work which in turn makes me question my investment of time (and sometimes money) in participating in the webinar.

Chances are, if you're reading this, that you are somehow involved in instructional design and if you're involved in instructional design, you need CARP. Even if you're just starting out, CARP is a great checklist of important design elements to check before sharing your materials with your audience.

Don't worry! It will get easier. When you start using CARP on a regular basis, it becomes ingrained in your design process and will become an organic part of how you place images, videos, text, and animations.