Top eLearning Design Resources You Should Know
It is great having some many free eLearning design resources available online. But it is impossible to keep up with them all and locating the right one can be frustrating.
To help, I'm sharing these “go to” resources to help keep your projects moving forward while saving you time and money. By the end, you’ll have a pro toolkit that will make your projects look like a million bucks without breaking the bank.
As an eLearning designer, there are a few key categories of design assets you’ve got to cover:
- Photos & Graphics
- Icons
- Fonts
- Mockups
- Slides
Start With These
If you’re short on time or don’t want to explore all of these options for any reason, here is the super fast, Cliff Notes version. These are my top 3 favorites and they’ll cover a majority of the design assets you’ll need for most projects.
Everypixel
Everypixel searches only for licensed pictures and graphics showing you both free and paid options from over 50 of the leading stock photo sites. The super useful filter options will help you save loads of time and money. No more mad dashes from site to site looking for the right images to use in your designs.
The Noun Project
I love icons! They are such a useful and effective part of any designers toolkit. With over a million curated icons, created by a global community, The Noun Project has icons for everything. The best part is they’re all free and $39/year allows you to skip the need to give any attribution. This is a no-brainer if there ever was one.
Google Fonts
Some say that choosing fonts for design projects is like choosing an outfit to wear. The fonts you choose have a huge impact on the kind of impression your design will make on people. Just as different occasions and situations call for different types of clothes, different types of projects require different styles of fonts. By tapping into Google’s open source font library you can easily find the perfect typeface for your next project.
If you're still here, thanks for sticking around. The rest of these are pretty good too!
Stock Photos
Finding the right images can often make or break your eLearning projects. Fortunately, it is easier than ever to find great stock photos — there are literally millions to choose from. Even so, you don’t want to waste time wading through endless pages of useless results.
While my search for stock photos always starts at Everypixel, these are a few other resources that can take your work from good to great with professional quality eye-catching stock imagery.
Pexels
Pexels provides high quality and completely free stock photos licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. That means all of the photos on Pexels are free for any personal and commercial purpose. They also have convenient pro tools which integrate with PowerPoint, Photoshop, and others for Windows/Mac.
Unsplash
Unsplash has over 550,000 free high-resolution photos that can be used for commercial and non-commercial projects. In addition to photos, Unsplash can also serve you custom sized image placeholders. Just give them your image size (width & height) they'll give you an image placeholder.
StockSnap.io
StockSnap is yet another source of CC0 licensed photos. As an added bonus, you can send these photos to Snappa, their online graphics editor, and make enhancements right in your browser.
Pixabay
With over 1.4 million free stock photos, Pixabay is one of the largest options around. My Everypixel searches often lead me here.
Icons
There are so many ways an eLearning designer can use icons. From the user interface to bullet point replacements and to enhance comprehension, I always keep a big collection of icons close at hand. I can usually find what I need on The Noun Project, but on occasion finding the perfect icon requires casting a wider net. Here are a few good sources for your icon needs.
FlatIcons
This site has a huge collection of high-quality editable icons that are that you can use for both personal and commercial projects.
IconMonstr
Another great source of customizable icons in a variety of formats available for use in commercial work.
Icons8
In addition to great looking icons, this site has a really useful search by drawing feature that lets you sketch what you’re looking for.
Illustrio
Every icon in this collection comes in a variety of customizable versions and are also suitable for use in commercial projects with attribution.
Fonts
Every good designer knows typography plays an important role in establishing the personality of your project. In addition to Google Fonts, here are a few good font resources that will make your projects better than ever.
Dafont
With over 35,000 fonts and counting, Dafont is a rich resource. Dafont helps make finding the right fonts easier with a search function and offering several browsing options including by category (theme), new fonts, top fonts, and author.
Font Squirrel
Font Squirrel has done the hard work of finding high-quality free fonts that are licensed for commercial work.
1001 Fonts
Despite the name, this site has tens of thousands of free fonts available and browsable by category. Most of the fonts should be free to use in commercial projects, but always be sure to check.
Bonus Font Pairing App: Font Joy
Great designs require great fonts but for many, selecting from the seemingly endless number of options can be intimidating. That’s where Fontjoy can lend a hand. Font Joy uses AI to offer up attractive Google font pairings. Just drag the slider to indicate how much contrast you want between the pairings and you're on your way to finding fantastic font combos.
Slides
Many eLearning projects are slide-based, and collecting a variety of layouts that you can plug into your course is a great way to get a jump start on any project. After all, to command attention and communicate your message you’ll want some of the professional, visually appealing, and effective slides you’ll find here.
SlideModel
The only thing better than finding free slide layouts and designs is having the sent to you every week. Sign up for a free account and start collecting great slides right in your inbox.
Slideshop
Like SlideModel, Slideshop will also send you free slides every week. Just subscribe and enjoy!
PresentationGo
PresentationGO offers a wide collection of free PowerPoint templates for your presentations: backgrounds, diagrams, maps, and more.
Diagrammer
This site from Duarte offers over 4,000 free customizable Powerpoint-ready diagrams. Just search, download, and go.
Slidedocs
When you need to go beyond standard slide layouts, these templates from Duarte will help you rock more text-based content like ebooks and performance support projects.
Mockups
Want an easy way to raise your design game? Skip the boring screenshots and showcase them in an attractive real-world context with these mockup tools − no Photoshop required!
As always, be sure to check and comply with the licensing and usage terms of any design assets you use.
Want to discover even more great design resources and get notified when I find new ones? Visit my free design resources page.
