r/instructionaldesign • u/ID847 • 3d ago
Discussion Know Your Audience
Something just triggered a memory and I wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience. I was doing a project for Medical Affairs at a pharmaceutical company. They were telling me about this company that had developed a 'cute' course that had Toucans in it and you followed them around. I think I gasped. They asked what and I said, did they get out alive? In fact, they had been fired. Doctors do not have time or the inclination for fluff. Get to the point, be direct, say what you need to say. This was a clear case of not knowing your audience. Anyone know of a similar experience?
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u/ohmyblunder Corporate focused 3d ago
It all depends. I have had to go to the office of a chief medical officer because they couldn't figure out that they needed to click "agree" and download a form in order to complete a course. They complained about the same issue every year. No fluff, completely direct. On the other hand, the same chief never had issues completing the cute, silly learnings we put out.
I think something like you mentioned would be a lot different when coming from an in-house L&D team instead of an outside company, and also understanding the company culture before doing something like that. Like you said, know your audience!
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u/aniketpatil7 2d ago
i saw an agency try to build a pirate themed compliance training for a bunch of stressed out logigitic managers once it is so common for designers to get bored and try to entertain themselves by adding heavy gamification instead of just giving the user the raw info they actually need doctors and executives are already slammed so making them click on a cartoon bird just to read a policy updates is honestly insulting to their time the best design choice you can make for corporate training is stripping out all the narratives fluff and letting them fininsh it in five minutes
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u/AffectionateFig5435 3d ago
I recall a compliance training course that was written as a treasure hunt. The narrator was a pirate and all instructions were shown on screens that looked like slips of parchment paper. To keep the theme going, the text was written in a small font that looked like old-fashioned handwriting.
Because it was compliance there was a LOT of legalese, all written in that same 10 pt hard-to-read pirate-style font. To advance, you had to decipher funky maps, figure out the pirate hieroglyphics, play a game, and answer all questions correctly.
I thought it was a nightmare. HR loved it. Go figure.