People are at the heart of every story, learning journey, and connection
What makes us human is our incredible diversity—no two of us are exactly alike. We come in different shapes, sizes, and colors, with unique features that make us distinct. Our heritage, professions, and personalities shape the way we interact with the world. Beauty, too, is subjective; what one culture admires may be unconventional in another. This diversity is not just a reality of life; it is a vital element of effective learning experiences.
When it comes to eLearning, diversity is a powerful tool. Characters designed for eLearning that can reflect the world’s variety feel more relatable and authentic.
On this Toolkit article we take a close look at the iSpring Suite’s Character Builder, a powerful cartoon maker tool you may already have available as part of your iSpring licence, a handy creator of custom eLearning characters which quickly enables you to craft visually appealing characters to use in multiple interactions and ways to enhance the learning experience.
The power of characters in eLearning
Characters in eLearning do more than add visual appeal—they can help make content more engaging, relatable, and easier to remember. A well-designed character can support storytelling, guide learners through a course, and create a sense of connection.
Designing characters involves a mix of creativity and practical considerations. Factors like expressions, gestures, color, and diversity all play a role in how learners perceive and interact with them. Even with a simple cartoon maker like iSpring’s, small design choices can influence the learning experience in meaningful ways.
Some universal principales of character design
Designing characters for eLearning goes beyond aesthetics—it is about crafting personas that enhance learning, engagement, and retention. Effective character design ensures that learners can connect with the material, fostering a sense of immersion and emotional investment. Each principle below explores a key aspect of character design, offering insights on how to create meaningful and impactful learning experiences.
Character psychology and personality
Characters that evoke emotions help build connections with learners. A well-designed character feels authentic, making the learning experience more engaging and immersive. To achieve this, character personalities must align with the intended learning experience, whether as a mentor, peer, or guide. Learners naturally relate to personas that feel familiar, making it essential to create characters that reflect their motivations, emotions, and behaviors.
One effective way to ensure character authenticity is by leveraging learner personas—detailed profiles of the target audience based on research and observation. Defining personas help us understand our learners’ needs, preferences, and challenges, and to create characters that resonate on a more personal level.
- Some additional aspects to consider include:
- Authority vs. approachability: Design characters to match their role—corporate trainers should exude confidence, while course guides should feel warm and inviting.
- Consistency in design: Maintain alignment between facial features, attire, and expressions to reinforce the character’s role and personality.
- Emotional depth: Even simple avatars should express emotions like empathy, confidence, or excitement to enhance engagement.
- Implied backstory: Even if not explicitly stated, designing characters with a backstory adds depth and makes them more believable.
- Cultural relevance: Ensure characters align with the audience’s cultural norms, values, and expectations for better relatability.
- Learner validation: Test characters with learners to ensure they resonate with diverse perspectives and experiences.
- Tone and theme alignment: Match the character’s style, expressions, and personality to the course’s overall atmosphere for a cohesive experience.
Anatomy and shape language
Simple shapes and body structures hold immense power in character design. While a highly detailed face is perceived as someone else, a simplified form creates a visual vacuum, inviting learners to project themselves into the character. This is why cartoons and stylized figures feel so engaging—they strip away unnecessary details, making space for personal identification. This ability to foster connection and immersion is one of the many reasons comics are such a powerful tool for learning and teaching.
- The way a character is structured impacts perception. Shape language communicates emotions and roles at a glance—rounder characters appear friendlier, while sharper angles convey authority or intensity.
- Rounded shapes convey friendliness and warmth.
- Angular shapes suggest authority and structure.
- Balanced, proportional anatomy improves credibility and realism.
- Dynamic poses make characters feel more engaging and less static.
- Weight distribution: A well-balanced stance improves believability.
Color psychology and contrast
Color choices help shape perception, mood, and recognition. Since characters created with the iSpring Cartoon Maker can be fully customized with brand colors, they can seamlessly fit into the overall learning experience, reinforcing consistency and familiarity. Beyond branding, color plays a role in highlighting key details, differentiating roles, and making characters more engaging.
- Other things you may want to consider when selecting your colors:
- Brand integration: Using brand colors helps maintain a cohesive look across learning materials.
- Emotional tone: Warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows) feel energetic and inviting, while cool tones (blues, greens) create a sense of calm and trust.
- Contrast for clarity: High-contrast colors improve visibility, ensuring characters stand out against different backgrounds.
- Cultural relevance: Color meanings vary across cultures, so it’s useful to consider the audience’s context.
- Role differentiation: Assigning distinct color palettes to different character types can make their roles more intuitive.
Attitude, Expression, and Gesture
A character’s stance, gestures, and facial expressions communicate mood, intent, and personality at a glance. A dynamic use of body language and facial cues can make characters feel more engaging, even with a predefined set of poses. We can also combine our characters with additional visual elements like speech bubbles, onomatopoeia, or background elements to further enhance their expressiveness and storytelling potential.
- To bring our characters to life we can also use:
- Strong stances for clarity – A confident, upright pose conveys leadership, while a relaxed stance feels more approachable.
- Expressive gestures – Open palms suggest warmth and openness, while crossed arms can signal authority or contemplation.
- Facial expressions set the tone – A raised eyebrow adds curiosity, a furrowed brow conveys concern, and a wide smile enhances approachability.
- Speech bubbles for emphasis – Adding text in speech bubbles makes it easy to reinforce key messages or create dialogue in slides and interactions.
- Onomatopoeia and symbols – Small visual cues like “Zzz” for sleepiness, exclamation marks for excitement, or motion lines can enhance expressiveness without needing additional poses.
- Contextual positioning – Placing characters near relevant content or interacting with elements in the scene (e.g., pointing at key information) makes them feel more integrated into the learning experience.
Flexibility and Integration
The ability to customize and adapt characters makes them highly versatile for use across PowerPoint and iSpring features. Whether adding them to pre-made cartoon scenarios, integrating them into quizzes, or adjusting them to fit different backgrounds, characters can be easily modified to match the learning experience.
- Ways to make the most of this flexibility include:
- Pre-made scenarios: Place characters in existing cartoon-style backgrounds to quickly build engaging narratives.
- Interactive elements: Use characters in quizzes, drag-and-drop interactions, and role-based learning activities.
- Seamless PowerPoint integration: Position, resize, and layer characters with other slide elements, animations, and transitions.
- Cropping and adjustments: Modify character images to fit different layouts, perspectives, or close-ups without losing quality.
- Background adaptability: Swap or remove backgrounds to blend characters naturally into various settings.
