From time to time, our team helps organizations design effective materials for their learning-related events. Recently, we had a wonderful opportunity to work with our client, Pain BC, to redesign the slide decks their volunteer facilitators use in a peer support program for people living with chronic pain.

The free virtual peer support program, called Peer Support and Wellness Groups, offers those living with chronic pain the opportunity to connect with peers, share coping strategies, and learn about pain and pain management together. Sessions run online for 2 hours, twice per month, and are typically led by trained volunteers with lived experience of pain.

The purpose of this project was to redesign all 31 slide decks used for this program in a way that made them simple, easy to use, and encouraged peer learning and engagement. We also revised an extensive Facilitators’ Guide to align directly with the refreshed version of the slides.

So, what principles did we use to guide their design? 

First, connection.

At the top of our list is the idea that when we choose to use slide decks, we don’t make them the focal point of our session. As Beth writes about in her book, Design to Engage, they should instead be a minor accompaniment to the main event, allowing everyone to focus on engagement among the group rather than what’s up on the screen.

Given the strength of the peer support program as an opportunity for social connection, we especially wanted to use slides that supported this goal. As a result, we intentionally created slides that were few in number, included very few words, and maintained plenty of white space. The hope in doing so was that it minimized the temptation to read too much from the slides while encouraging opportunities for sharing and engagement.

Second, consistency.

The next consideration when designing the slides was the fact that the peer support program is facilitated by volunteers. As such, we wanted to make sure that all 31 slide decks created for each session topic were accessible, easy to use, and required as little extra work on the part of the facilitators as possible. This required us to focus on consistency.

Examples of how our team designed and presented content in a consistent way include: using a consistent and predictable layout for each session; ensuring that the small amount of information on the slides carefully aligns with the more detailed educational content in the Facilitators’ Guide; and, using plain language and clear activity instructions consistently throughout the materials. The hope in taking these extra steps is that the content is as easy as possible for everyone to follow and understand, and that the volunteer has more time to focus on facilitation and conversation.

And finally, good graphic design.

We make intentional choices about what our slides look like depending on our goals, and in this case, we wanted to create a collaborative peer learning experience. As a result, good graphic design was used not only to make the slides visually appealing, but also to help participants take in the content more easily, and to create space in the session for discussion and reflection.

Examples of some of these design choices include: choosing a clean and simple look for the slide decks based on the existing program brand; having our graphic designer create small icons to use throughout the decks as visual cues for certain themes; using meaningful and compelling images to depict important concepts; and, using resting pages displaying only a simple photograph to allow moments for the group to rest and reflect together. 

Again, the emphasis was less on having the slide capture participants’ attention and more on making them simple, easy to use and understand, and prompting peer learning and engagement. These decks were then enriched, of course, by an extensive and content-rich Facilitators’ Guide that aligned with each slide.

We very much appreciated the opportunity to work with Pain BC on this project and learn more about the Peer Support and Wellness Groups that exist for those living with chronic pain. 

Are you curious about what it might look like to redesign your slide decks or create an e-learning course together? For more information, please contact us at hello@bcblearning.com or visit the Services page of our website. We’d love to hear from you!

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