Last October in a train the trainer program in Atlanta, I believe it was LeeAnn Tamerius and Donna Carson from Procter & Gamble who brought in a wonderful book that they highly recommended for ideas in how to create visually appealing and reader-friendly training manuals. They especially liked the format ideas for training, including great buttons to indicate the nature of the page: reference, activity, key point, etc. If it was another person in that class and you are reading this Tip, please accept my apologies for a poor memory and let me know, so I can give correct attribution.
Written by Darlene Frank, the title is a mouthful: Terrific Training Materials: High Impact Graphic Designs for Workbooks, Handouts, Instructor Guides, And Job Aids.
Midwest Book Review describes the book as follows:
“Terrific Training Materials: High Impact Graphic Designs is “must” reading for anyone involved in the preparation of effective written materials for training manuals, documentation, product information, news releases, publicity materials, workbooks, etc. Readers will learn how to dramatically improve the communication quality of their printouts, flyers, manuals, etc. through the power of good graphic design. Terrific Training Materials shows how, through dozens of ready-to-use examples, how to add visual interest and training impact to texts. Terrific Training Materials is ideal for desktop publishing projects and the independent publisher or writer will quickly be producing more attractive and effective publications from simple publicity releases to catalogs to books. Over thirty ready-to-use design specifications are included. Terrific Training Materials is essential for anyone just starting out, and a useful reference for even the most experienced writers and publishers.
Learn how to incorporate the power of more effective graphic design in your manuals, handouts, and job aids. This unique new resource will help you improve the visual appeal and effectiveness of your printed materials through the use of graphic design techniques. Whether you’re designing a one-page handout or a 200 page leader’s guide, this book is a rich resource you can turn to for layout ideas and advice.
A resource section includes 34 ready-to-use design layouts for workbooks, handouts, instructor guides, and job aids. All the specifications are included so you can quickly and easily reproduce these proven graphic designs in your own training materials.Ó
It sounds great, doesn’t it? I’m convinced! Now that I have found my notes about it, I’m going to order one for myself.
If you’ve used anything similar or even used ideas from this book that you found really added pizzazz to your training materials, please let us know.
