Mobile Learning Design: How to Create Courses for Any Device

Ever try to squeeze a desktop course onto a phone and wonder why learners bounce? We reframe the challenge and share five essentials that make mobile learning fast, clear, and genuinely useful in the moments people actually have. From finding mobile moments to building microlearning mile markers, we walk through patterns that turn scattered minutes into meaningful progress and show why one crisp outcome per lesson is the antidote to overload.

A practical case study ties it together: a 45‑minute compliance module reborn as five six‑minute micro lessons for nurses in the field. With thumb-friendly navigation, fast media, and printable field cards, completion moved into the workday, and documentation errors dropped within a month. We close with ten evidence-backed strategies inspired by SHIFT eLearning, plus a simple five-by-five rule to keep scope sane. Grab the Glove Box Guide checklist to apply these patterns right away. If this helped you design smarter for mobile, subscribe, share with a teammate, and leave a review—what will you redesign first?

🔗 Episode Links:

Please check out the resources mentioned in the episode. Enjoy!

A Comprehensive Guide to Mobile Learning Design

Glovebox Guide: Mobile Course Checklist

📑 References:

Cohen, D. (n.d.). A comprehensive guide to mobile learning design - Shift E-Learning. https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/a-comprehensive-guide-to-mobile-learning-design 

Join PodMatch!
Use the link to join PodMatch, a place for hosts and guests to connect.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Today’s Roadmap
• 0:22 Find the Mobile Moments
• 2:10 Structure With Microlearning Mile Markers
• 3:26 Thumb-Friendly UX Essentials
• 4:30 Media, Performance, & Bandwidth
• 5:44 Accessibility & Real-World Testing
• 6:47 Test Drive: Nurses On the Go
• 7:54 Ten Proven Mobile Design Strategies
• 12:18 The Glove Box Guide CTA & Closing

Transcript

Jackie Pelegrin: 0:00

Hello, and welcome to the Designing with Love Podcast. I am your host, Jackie Pelegrin, where my goal is to bring you information, tips, and tricks as an instructional designer. Hello, instructional designers and educators. Welcome to episode 83 of the Designing with Love Podcast. Today I'll walk you through five essentials for mobile learning and a short story of how a clunky desktop course became a five-part on-the-go win. We're taking a quick journey, which consists of on-ramps, mile markers, and a test drive, so you can design learning that travels well. By the end of this episode, you'll have the keys to unlock the secrets to designing engaging, mobile friendly learning that fits into learners' busy lives. So, grab your notebook, a cup of coffee, and settle in as we explore this topic together. Let's start by getting up to speed. Every great mobile course begins with understanding when and where your learners can actually learn. Stop one, the on ramp. Find the mobile moments. Mobile moments are those tiny pockets of time, such as waiting rooms, bus rides, or five minute breaks, where attention exists but bandwidth such as time, cognitive load, and sometimes internet access is limited. Here's what you can do. First, define one crisp outcome per moment, such as identify two safety checks before powering a device, not understand electrical safety. Next, design just in time, not just in case, by prioritizing what unlocks immediate job performance. Finally, keep each lesson design so it can be completed in five to seven minutes by aiming for satisfaction in a single sitting. Pitfall to avoid. Shrinking a desktop module onto a smaller screen. Mobile learning isn't a copy, it's a redesign. Here's your road sign. If it's longer than a coffee, it's too long. Once we know the moments, we need a structure that makes progress obvious. Time to watch the mile markers. Stop two. The mile markers. Structure as microlearning. On a road trip, clear mile markers keep you calm. The same is true for mobile learning. Here's what you can do. First, include one idea or action per screen. Let the headline do the heavy lifting. Next, consider the pattern. Include a headline of two to three short bullets, then a tiny task for a quick check. Then consider the language. Front load keywords and use plain, scannable sentences. Finally, remember completion. End each micro chunk with a tap to do moment, such as try it, note it, and check your understanding. Your designer cue, the five by five rule. About five screens, about five minutes, which keeps scope sane and stories tight. Pitfall to avoid. The next trap with no action. Every chunk should change what the learner can do right now. With the route mapped, let's talk driving comfort, how the experience feels under the thumb. Stop three. Grip and steering. Thumb friendly UX. If learners can't steer comfortably, they'll exit early. One hand use is the default. Design so the primary path is effortless with a thumb. Here's what you can do. First, include tap targets, large, well spaced buttons. Avoid tiny links, especially near edges. Second, include simple navigation. Always show back, next, and home, or an obvious progression control. Then integrate the interaction model, designed for tap and swipe. Skip hover only behaviors. Finally, include the reach zone. Place primary actions in the lower half. Keep non-critical links up top or behind a more section. Quick test. Can you complete the lesson while holding a coffee? If not, reduce friction. A good grip is great, but we also need fuel efficiency. Let's make sure our course doesn't guzzle bandwidth. Stop four, fuel economy, media and performance. Great road trips don't stall on hills. Great mobile courses don't stall on weak Wi-Fi. Performance determines completion. Speed and fallbacks matter more than flashy effects. Here's what you can do. First, optimize media. Compress images, keep clips under 45 seconds with captions. Prefer lightweight formats. Next, give choices, such as play now or read instead. Respect bandwidth and context. Then have fallbacks. Provide transcripts and downloadable PDFs or one pagers for offline use. Finally, include load strategy, lazy load heavy assets, then defer non essential scripts. Pitfall to avoid. Auto playing HD video on cellular. Make play a choice, not a surprise. Here's your road sign. Fast beats fancy on mobile. With speed and check, we open all lanes. Accessibility isn't an add-on, it's the highway. Stop five. Open to all lanes. Accessibility and real device testing. If any lane is closed, some learners can't travel. Inclusive design widens reach and prevents rework. It's practical and principled. Here's what you can do. First, include core essentials such as captions, alt text, sufficient contrasts, readable font sizes, and logical heading order. Second, don't use color alone. Pair status or feedback with labels or icons. Then include a device tab. Test on three realities, a small phone, a large phone, and a tablet in portrait and landscape. Finally, incorporate a field pilot. Watch three to five real users in their real context. Then fix the first friction points you see. Quick exploratory What breaks on the bus breaks completion rates. We've scoped, structured, smoothed, sped up, and opened the lanes. Let's take a quick test drive. Here's the test drive. A community health program asked a team to convert a 45-minute desktop compliance module into something nurses could complete between visits. The design team reframed it into five six-minute micro lessons, each ending with a single field task. Snap a correct label, check two documentation items, or verify a dosage calculation. Navigation was thumb-friendly with large back and next buttons and a persistent home. Videos never exceeded 45 seconds and always shipped with captions and a read-in-stead transcript. Each lesson ended with a printable field card for offline reference. The result? Nurses finished during their day, not after hours, and managers reported fewer documentation errors within the first month. The big unlock wasn't new content, it was designing for real mobile moments rather than shrinking a desktop course. Now that you have all your stops mapped out and a test drive to put it into action, let's take a peek at your own owner's manual so you can learn some best practices for mobile design. Your owner's manual. Best practices for mobile design. According to the resource, a comprehensive guide to mobile learning design by Diana Cohen at Shift eLearning, there are 10 strategies you should keep in mind when designing mobile learning content. In this episode, I'll briefly cover the 10 strategies. If you would like to learn more, please visit the link provided in the show notes. Strategy number one, only include the must-know information. According to cognitive load theory, our brains can only process a certain amount of information at once. If we overload a mobile course with too much content, it might overwhelm learners and make them leave. Strategy number two, streamline the mobile learning experience for speed. Remember, mobile learning is different from learning via a computer or laptop. Mobile learners expect the speed of an immediate response while using a mobile device for learning. Strategy number three, adapt to the medium. Make sure to consider what it takes to adapt to the medium of learning through a mobile phone. For instance, take into account how a mobile phone is used throughout the day in comparison to the use of a computer in the same period. Strategy number four, strategic layout. In a report by Search Engine Watch, one notable difference between mobile and desktop e-learning is the learning time spent on different devices. It was reported that desktop user visits lasted up to three times longer than mobile user visits. Strategy number five, test before launch. The key here is not to launch a mobile course until it has been tested on multiple devices to ensure proper function and deployment. Also, don't rely on a single person to test the course. One recommendation from Diana at Shift eLearning is to test the course with different types of users, from tech savvy ones to newbies, so you can ensure it is intuitive for everyone. Strategy number six, responsive design is the norm. Today, responsive design is the norm in mobile learning. Students are using devices of all sizes and shapes, from mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and personal computers. It is common for them to often switch between devices multiple times per day, depending on their location. According to research, nearly 87% of millennials say they use two to three devices per day. Strategy number seven, keep the user and context in mind. Research suggests that mobile learning should be less like the content found in a typical e-learning course and more focused to support orientation. Mobile learning is more effective as just in time or just in place modules or part of a broader learning intervention. Strategy number eight, simplify. When you use too many features and options, this can confuse learners. Every button, graphic, or paragraph added makes the screen more complicated, which ends up overloading your learners. Again, think about cognitive load theory and how much our brains can process at a given time. Strategy number nine, keep in mind the way learners interact in mobile environments. Mobile devices use touch screens, which means the way users interact with a mobile course is going to be very different. Instead of using a mouse to click, roll over, or hover, users tap their screen to interact with the different elements. Make sure to incorporate simple menu styles, increase the spatial size of buttons, and enlarging interface elements of buttons. And finally, strategy number 10, design to capture feedback. Mobile devices provide you access to the always-on connection to the learner. Through this connection, you can send out quick notifications and messages about new content and important announcements. This allows you to meet your learners where they are in their learning journey and provide them with just in time training. If you're ready to try this on your next build, I've got a tool to keep you on course. Call to Action: the Glove Box Guide. Before we take the exit, grab something for your glove box. Make sure to download the Glove Box Guide mobile course checklist in the show notes. It mirrors today's five stops with quick checkboxes, such as moments, microstructure, thumb UX, media performance, and accessibility testing. Plus, a space to note one real-world task per lesson. Make sure to use that on your next build. Then message me one thing it changed for your learner so we can celebrate your win. Before I conclude today's episode, I would like to share an inspiring quote by Karen McGrain, a pioneering content strategist and author of Content Strategy for Mobile. You don't get to decide which device people use to access your content. They do. Thanks for spending part of your day with me. May your next lesson travel well and meet your learners right where they are. Thank you for taking some time to listen to this podcast episode today. Your support means the world to me. If you'd like to help keep the podcast going, you can share it with a friend or colleague, leave a heartfelt review, or offer a monetary contribution. Every act of support, big or small, makes a difference, and I'm truly thankful for you.