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As the CEO of Bulldog Drummond, Shawn is responsible for strategically directing each of Bulldog’s key engagements, ensuring there’s an “Uncommon Sense” methodology at the center of everything the company does. This approach maintains that the biggest opportunities can be realized, and the most complex challenges solved, by using a powerful combination of simplicity, common sense and determination. He brings twenty-plus years of innovation, design, brand and business-building experience to companies from Fortune 500s to purpose-driven startups.Shawn helps leadership teams transform large, multinational companies and passionate entrepreneurs launch new companies, products and brands. He has worked with executive teams at companies including Adidas, Bolthouse Farms, CMT, Diageo, Eddie Bauer, Heineken, H&R Block, IDEO, MTV, Mattel, Nike, PIRCH, Starbucks, Samsung, Taco Bell, WD-40, Westfield, and World Vision, among many others.Following a life-changing trip to Malawi in March of 2004, Shawn has become committed to finding creative and sustainable ways to make a measurable difference in the world by helping people and companies realize their full potential. He sits on the board of The Honest Kitchen, the advisory boards of FEED Projects and International Farming, is the co-founder of YouSchool and Y-Malawi? and a faculty member of The Honor Foundation. He writes feverishly for Fast Company, PSFK, and is a sought-after speaker. Shawn lives in San Diego with his wife and three children, is a dawn patrol surfer, wanna-be photographer and avid cultural voyeur.

Shawn E. Parr

Helping your employees discover and define their purpose represents a significant opportunity to improve engagement and business performance.

Is Your Business Working on Purpose?

Shaun Davies is an accomplished learning experience designer with expertise in crafting dynamic training solutions for both e-learning and instructor-led environments. By partnering with stakeholders and conducting in-depth needs assessments, Davies applies adult learning theories to develop engaging and impact-making curriculums. His proficiency in the instructional design life cycle and creative approach to using technology for teaching consistently enhance training programs. By leveraging innovative solutions such as interactive simulations and gamified experiences, Davies effectively meets the needs of modern learners and delivers high-quality training that aligns with organizational goals.

Shaun Davies

Attend the Evidence-Based Learning Virtual Conference, and learn more best practices like these from 6 of learning’s top thought leaders.Whether you prepare slides, e-learning screens, print-based materials, or all three, chances are, you frequently need to describe a visual with text. You may need to list the steps to use equipment or online applications. Or you may need to describe how something works. What’s the best way to organize and display text in conjunction with a visual to promote learning? Take a look at the two experimental treatments in the figures to follow and answer the following questions:1. Which do you think led to better learning?2. What are the major differences between the two displays? Figure 1. How Brakes Work: Version 1 (Johnson and Mayer, 2012) Figure 2. How Brakes Work: Version 2 (Johnson and Mayer, 2012)How to Best Display Text With GraphicsIn the experiment, 44 university students were randomly assigned to study how brakes work from one of the two the versions shown in Figures 1 and 2. As the students reviewed the display, their eye movements and eye fixations were tracked. After a short study period, they were tested with problems such as, “What could be done to make brakes more reliable – that is, to make sure they would not fail?” The learners studying Figure 2 averaged significantly higher scores on the test than those studying Figure 1, with a high effect size of 0.80.What features made Figure 2 more effective? One obvious difference is the alignment of the text close to the relevant portion of the visual rather than all displayed at the bottom of the slide as in Figure 1. The alignment of text close to the relevant portion of a visual is called the spatial contiguity effect and has been shown to lead to better learning, with a mean effect size of 0.72 (Ginns, 2006). Note that Version 2 also includes numbers as well as a line to link text and visual elements. Another benefit of text alignment is segmenting the text into short phrases. Rather than five sentences displayed at the bottom of the screen in Figure 1, the integrated version displays the content in six short phrases.Why Is Integrated Text More Effective?An analysis of student eye movements showed that both groups spent more time reviewing the text than the diagrams and used the text to guide their processing of the graphics. However those studying the integrated version made more integrative and corresponding eye transitions between text and visual than those using the separated version. In other words, those viewing the integrated version looked at the corresponding part of the diagram after reading a segment of text more often than individuals viewing the separated version. The more frequent visual integration of text and relevant portion of the diagram promoted better cognitive integration of text and visual and led to deeper understanding.In summary, we have a solid foundation of evidence calling for segmenting text into short phrases and integrating it close to the relevant portion of the visual. Placement of text near a visual helps the learner integrate the corresponding content in their mind to form a better mental model.Your Lessons Learned: RSVPHow do you place explanatory text with a related visual? Have you tried a layout such as that shown in Figure 2? What outcomes did you notice? Did you need more or different resources (time, tools, etc) to prepare an integrated version? Please comment with your lessons learned.ReferencesGinns, P. (2006). Integrating information: A meta-analysis of the spatial contiguity and temporal contiguity effects.  Learning and Instruction, 16, 511-525.Johnson, C.I. & Mayer, R.E. (2012). An eye movement analysis of the spatial contiguity effect in multimedia learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 18, 178-191.

Displaying Text With Visuals: What Are the Best Practices?

Change in government rarely comes easily. New laws, administrations, and policies arrive quickly, with the expectation that thousands of people will adapt just as fast. Leaders are left with a familiar question: How do you actually get people to understand and embrace the change?This challenge extends to many other industries. Organizations undergoing significant change often face the same hurdles. Visual storytelling—especially in the form of short, engaging videos—is proven to be a powerful tool for driving rapid and meaningful behavioral change.Take the case of the American College of Education, which created high-quality e-learning content to help staff and students better understand their new digital initiatives. By developing scenario-based videos embedded into training modules, they moved beyond lengthy documents, making complex information accessible and memorable for their audience. This approach led to improved engagement and practical application of new skills.Similarly, Advocate Health designed engaging onboarding videos at scale to introduce new staff to organizational culture and procedures. Using storytelling, they fostered understanding, helping new employees quickly adapt and internalize their roles.From Slides to StoryThese organizations realized dropping information into slides or lengthy documents wasn’t enough. Instead, the teams worked with content creators to transform key messages into short, scenario-based videos, woven into a course and reinforced with leadership perspectives.The shift here is subtle but important. Rather than “here are the ten things you must memorize,” it became, “here’s how this change looks and feels in real life.” In government training, that same shift, away from bullet points toward storytelling, can make the difference between compliance and buy-in.What SticksThe results? Employees start using new language, adopt new practices, and internalize new behaviors long after initial training.This isn’t surprising. Cognitive scientists have long shown that people remember material better when it’s paired with visuals, a theory known as the picture superiority effect. Stories, too, are more likely to change attitudes and behaviors because they draw people in emotionally, are concrete, and promote self-understanding. In government, where employees may be spread across regions or working under pressure, this kind of “stickiness” is essential.A cybersecurity policy only works if employees change their daily habits. A new health initiative only matters if staff know how to explain it to the public. If training doesn’t stick, the effort can be wasted. The goal isn’t just completion. It’s lasting impact.Scaling SolutionsAn added advantage of this approach is scalability. Once a compelling, story-driven course is developed for one department or initiative, it can be easily adapted and reused across different parts of the organization, maximizing impact while minimizing costs.Government trainers can take advantage of this. Once a story-driven course is created for one office, it can be reused, adapted, and shared. When budgets are limited, being able to build once and deploy many times is no small thing.TakeawaysThere are a few clear lessons here:Start with story, not just slides. Keep content short and modular. Measure behavior, not just attendance. Reuse good content wherever you can.Change is inevitable, but how it is communicated makes all the difference. Clear, compelling storytelling helps employees grasp the “why,” see themselves in the story, and live the change.

New Mission, New Narrative: Leading Change Through Storytelling

In the morning, do you reach for a favorite coffee cup or select an attractive outfit to wear to a meeting? Did the sleek and modern design of your smartphone influence your buying decision? What about your go-to websites? Are you drawn to the ones that are attractive and well-designed rather than those that are cluttered and difficult to read? You would probably agree that the visual design of a product influences your choices and buying decisions. And you most likely know that people prefer to use attractive products rather than poorly-designed ones. But you may not realize the extent to which design can impact a person’s emotions, which in turn affects how people think and learn. A Common MisconceptionMany of us have a common misconception—fueled by outdated science—that emotions and cognition are two independent functions. At one time, researchers were certain that cognition and emotion operated as two separate systems. Underlying this theory was the idea that emotions and feelings were a lower order function as compared to higher order rational thinking.Current research has basically done away with these older theories. We now know that emotion and cognition are interdependent. Emotions are crucial for quickly assessing a situation and for making decisions. There is also much data to show that positive emotions are particularly important for learning, solving problems, creative work, and innovation. This is because positive emotions, in most circumstances, enable more flexible and adaptive thinking (Isen, 2002).Aesthetics Evoke Positive EmotionsAlthough instructional design typically focuses on the cognitive aspects of learning, a new line of research is now exploring the affective dimension too. Known as “emotional design,” this research looks at the ways a learner’s feelings and mood can influence motivation and learning results.One obvious way to influence people is through visual aesthetics, or the appreciation of an appealing design. Thus, the importance of visual design in learning is gaining in stature and will become increasingly important in years to come. Initial research has already shown that evoking positive emotions in learners through an attractive visual design (layout, colors, imagery, etc.) can help facilitate a successful learning experience (Plass et al., 2014).As a learning experience designer, this presents new opportunities for success. It means visual design is another channel for reaching your audience and influencing learning outcomes. It means that by making e-learning courses, training slides, and other materials visually appealing, you may be able to increase motivation and enhance the learning process by influencing the learner’s emotions.Some Ways Aesthetics Can Enhance LearningHere are four of the many ways that aesthetics can evoke positive emotions and in turn, facilitate learning.Enhanced Value. People make rapid judgements based on sensory input and are instantly attracted to aesthetically pleasing objects, while rejecting those that are unappealing. Learners quickly judge the materials they use in a similar way. Not only do well-designed materials increase the appeal of the learning experience, learners will be more likely to judge the materials as credible and valuable. And perceived value is an important factor to adult learners. Increased Motivation. When learners experience positive emotions (which can be evoked through an attractive visual design), it can foster intrinsic motivation or the desire to learn without an external reward (Heidig et al., 2015). In addition, with an attractive design, the learning tasks are perceived as less difficult when compared to a neutral design (Um et al., 2012). Avoidance of Negative Emotions. One factor of an appealing design is its usability or how easy it is to attain one’s intended goal. In multimedia course design, the goals will vary according to task—navigating, playing videos, completing exercises, and taking tests, for instance. A design with a pleasing aesthetic will have the simplicity required to enhance task completion. It will help users avoid the negative emotions associated with poor designs, such as frustration and dissatisfaction, therefore enhancing the learning experience. Perceived Ease of Use. In the groundbreaking book, Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things (2005), author Donald Norman demonstrated the significance of aesthetics. He presented research showing that people perceive well-designed objects as user-friendly. In one experiment with an ATM machine, subjects perceived the attractively designed screen as easier to use than the unattractive screen design, even though both had the same buttons and functionality. Visual aesthetics enhanced the user experience. Considering how we are influenced and impressed by beautiful designs, it’s not surprising that aesthetics can have a significant impact on cognition and learning. By improving the visual design of e-learning courses, slides, learning portals, and similar learning tools, you can have a powerful effect on the learning experience. And isn’t that a common goal of learning professionals everywhere? For more visual design tips from Connie, check out her new book Visual Design SolutionsReferencesHeidig, S., Müller, J., & Reichelt, M.  Emotional design in multimedia learning: Differentiation on relevant design features and their effects on emotions and learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 44, 81–95, 2015. Isen, A. Missing in Action in the AIM: Positive Affect's Facilitation of Cognitive Flexibility, Innovation, and Problem Solving. Psychological Inquiry, 13(1), 57-65, 2002.Plass, J., Heidig, S., Hayward, E., Homer, B., & Um, E. Emotional design in multimedia learning: Effects of shape and color on affect and learning. Learning and Instruction, 29, 128–140, 2014. Um, E., Plass, J., Hayward, E., & Homer, B. Emotional design in multimedia learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(2), 485–498, 2012.

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