Create fun, engaging mobile learning content for your platform with our definitive 3 step guide.
Creating engaging and motivating mobile content might sound easy, but in reality, many people struggle to write content audiences love. Luckily, there are a few steps to guide you towards an easy and fun content creation process, so there is no need to stress!
In this article, we’ll look at the 3 critical pillars for great content:
- Short, bite-sized information;
- Fun and informative visuals;
- Engaging and creative media.
Short, Bite-Sized Content
Mobile Learning: keep it short and fun
It may sound obvious, but when writing mobile content, always remember that your audience will be reading it on their mobile devices. So keep the information as short as possible. Otherwise, consuming a lot of content on small screens becomes challenging.
Keep it friendly
Avoid being too formal to create an uncomfortable distance between you and the readers. Most of the time, it’s best to use “I”, “we”, or “you” when writing content. For example: “At our stores, we believe in creating a pleasant atmosphere for our customers; how can you achieve this? Multiple answers are possible”.
Try to create scenarios where you sketch and ask a question about a situation. This is a more appealing way to help your audience visualise a specific scenario. For example: “When you see a customer entering your store, clearly looking for a certain object, what do you do?”
- “I give the customer some time to look around.”
- “I immediately approach the customer to help him or her.”
- “I welcome the customer into the store and ask if I can help.”
Keep those brains in mind
Remember that the human brain can only retain so much, so don’t overload readers with overly-complicated content. Introductions should be clear, easy to understand and as short as possible. For example, try to replace all difficult words with easier-to-understand synonyms. Brainstorm about what you would like to teach your employees and write these ideas down on a big sheet of paper. Once you start working on those ideas, creating an entire learning path for your employees will become easier.
Keep it relevant
Always keep your target audience in mind. You must know precisely who you are writing for. The content creation process will be different for each target group, e.g. the writing style would be pretty different for engineers compared to your sales team.
Nonetheless, no matter who you write for, try to keep it fun and engaging; the whole purpose of mobile learning is to get everyone on board in a fun and motivating way. Constantly analyse and rewrite your content, ask your co-workers for advice, and always double-check your spelling.
Keep that feedback coming.
Getting the right inspiration for writing good content might not always be easy. You can always base your information on manuals, online courses and the entire internet of resources, but the challenge remains to keep it creative and unique. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to ask your potential audience what kind of content they would like to receive: what type of questions they prefer, what kind of information they would like to learn more about, what kind of writing style engages them, etc.
Once you’ve published the content, always ask for feedback through face-to-face meetings or a simple survey. Content creation is a continuous process of improvement and optimisation until you find the perfect level of engagement.
Mobile learning: create fun and informative visuals
Switch it up
Using a mobile learning platform aims to create some fun variety for your audience. Instead of creating overwhelming 3-hour courses where most people will forget 80% of what they have just learnt, you want to keep it fun, short and motivating to increase knowledge retention.
Visuals are a perfect way to do that. You create great variety by introducing different kinds of visuals, such as photos, infographics and animations. Online, you can find plenty of royalty-free photos. (Check out sites such as Unsplash or Pexels). Find the most relevant, high-quality images; one tag word is usually enough to find the perfect image to introduce or support your content. Use creative photos as an example of how certain things should or should not look; this makes your content more memorable.
Mobile learning: info-what?
A creative way of providing engaging content is through infographics, a visual representation of information or data in a chart or diagram. Creating an infographic is a very easy process: there are several tools which can help. (Try Infogram or Piktochart). All you need to do is provide the content to the designer and give him or her an idea of what you would like.
Mobile learning: engaging and Creative Media
Engage the management team.
Nothing is more motivating for employees than seeing how engaged their management team is with your chosen mobile platform. Once you explain the benefits of mobile learning to your employees and show them – perhaps in a video – that you, too, use and enjoy the app, your employees will get on board even faster than you think.
You create your mobile learning culture by filming your existing trainers, managers or other employees and using these videos in the training platform. When recording a video, always remember to film horizontally, not vertically, as a horizontal video looks much better on mobile platforms. Try to use professional equipment if possible, although most smartphones these days have excellent video specs!
Once you’ve recorded a video, it’s best to upload it to a (private) YouTube account. You can easily copy the YouTube link into the mobile learning platform. Remember that the video’s quality depends on your internet speed. This means that you might upload a high-quality video, but depending on your internet, it might look different.
Thank you, Google
Don’t have the time or resources to record these videos yourself? No problem! Luckily, there are plenty of perfect videos available online. Some are free, and others cost money, but investing in good videos is always a good idea as you can use them repeatedly. If you’re feeling creative, you can even provide the entire script and idea for the video, and online designers can create a personalised video. Freelancer sites such as Upwork or Fiverr are accessible, affordable ways to do this.
Creating mobile content isn’t as difficult as you think- so what are you waiting for? Start the creative process today!
