Henkel Loctite® - The e-learning handbook, imagined

E-learning people actually want to engage with. Does it sound like an imaginative scenario? Some out-of-this-world 2001: A Space Odyssey stuff? For chemical and consumer goods conglomerate Henkel – more precisely their adhesive brand, LOCTITE® – we were asked to challenge the general notion of e-learning as a dull and insipid affair.

Not a problem. Sort of.

The problem is, e-learning as a concept has a very bad rep. We set out to design and construct an e-learning environment where users can learn it all in an immediate, inclusive, entertaining and hands-on way. We developed some principles, “Dogmas of Engineering”, to guide us forward in this conundrum.

Dogma 1: Theory should always be accompanied by practice

 Theory is great. But showing how something works in practice often proves even better. This could be specific examples of a certain process, interviews with experienced industry experts, do’s & don’ts, hands-on quizzes, etc.

Dogma 2: Accept a high degree of ‘Audience Cynicism’

 Distributors will only go through our content if we constantly make sure it is relevant to them. If the information gets too fluffy, corporate salesy, or in any other way doesn’t add value to the people reading it, they will leave in a heartbeat.

Dogma 3: Simplify to amplify

 We need to accept that we cannot include every nitty gritty detail – let alone expect the audience to digest and remember it all. As a result, we have to constantly cherry-pick the content that is most crucial to the story.

Dogma 4: Professional e-learning CAN be entertaining

The most efficient way to make knowledge stick is by creating content that is memorable. Naturally, we still need to communicate in a professional and trustworthy LOCTITE® fashion – but it must never get boring.

From a creative point of view, we went for a very LOCTITE-y flavour, simply to make the overall narrative, user experience and design taste like LOCTITE®. Not literally, obviously. For instance, we crafted cute animated characters shaped like well-known LOCTITE® products and built a compelling narrative setting around them – visually custom-tailored and aligned with the LOCTITE® brand colour guidelines.

And the rest is history.