No budget. No time. No powerful tools. You’re under constraints, and it’s a pain. But are constraints always bad for creativity?

Imagine you had all the options and time in the world. This river has all the room it needs to spread out. Peaceful, isn’t it?

The next river has some serious constraints. What have the constraints done?

Constraints focus our energy. They concentrate our creativity and make us think in new, more exciting ways. Let’s look at an example.

Let’s say you need to introduce new staff to your firm’s privacy policy. You’re using an Iron Age elearning tool that limits you to linear navigation and multiple-choice questions. Flash is out of the question, but you can use audio.

Common approach: Provide several screens of mostly textual information and then give the learners a multiple-choice quiz that tests their memory of the facts (like, “How long must we keep client records?”).

Pretty boring. What are some other ideas?

1. Put the questions first

Use your multiple-choice questions to involve the learner in the material and lead them to the correct actions. For example, instead of starting a section with, “Most identity thieves get information out of the trash,” ask your learners to guess: “Where do most identity thieves get their information? a. Going through trash; b. Intercepting emails” etc.

This approach lets learners draw on their current knowledge and involves them somewhat in the content. Of course, you’ll want to write good multiple-choice questions.

To “quiz” learners, you could describe a scenario, then ask what the person should do. In the feedback for each option, rather than saying something like “incorrect,” describe what happened as a result of the learner’s choice and point out how the policy avoids this.

Still kind of boring, though. Let’s try again.

2. Create cheap photo scenarios

Using digital photos you take of your coworkers, set up several scenarios that show the need for the regulations.

For example, in one scenario, show a worker who puts private financial information in the recycling bin instead of the shredding bin, and then show an upset person who describes (in text or audio) how they were just denied a mortgage because someone got their financial information and trashed their credit. This is probably more memorable than an abstract lecture about the importance of shredding.

Use similar scenarios to “quiz” the learners. Show a worker about to do something, such as send an email. Ask the learner what the worker should do next. Use feedback to show the results as described in the first idea.

More interesting, but maybe a little preachy and predictable. Let’s try again.

3. Reverse the perspective

Tell learners that your security chief has obtained the Acme Home-Study Course for Identity Thieves. Present the (fictional!) Acme course to your learners with occasional commentary from the (fictional) chief.

For example, the Acme course could describe how to go through recycling bins to get financial information. The security chief could interject briefly to point out the firm’s policy on recycling or, better, to show a scenario and ask the learner what the worker should do.

Because the Acme course was produced on a budget, it could have some entertainingly bad graphics (stick figures?) or similar glitches that poke fun at elearning. The security chief could also have some quirks to make him or her more fun.

I like this idea, but the client might get nervous. It would probably be helpful to write a short section and get it approved before going ahead.

Other ideas

• Add real people: Show photos and play audio of real staff explaining how they apply the privacy regulations.
• Create a “game”: Use graphical multiple-choice questions that look gamelike. For example, the options could be a recycling bin, shredding bin, and file cabinet. Show a typical document; the learner clicks the letter corresponding to the correct destination for that document.

What are your ideas? And how do the constraints make you dig deeper than you might if you could use custom Flash?

For an in-depth look at how constraints strengthen design, see this post at Presentation Zen, which Michele Martin pointed out in her post on how non-profits struggle with the constraints they face.

You might also like The Oblique Strategies for quick inspiration.

Photos (c)iStockPhoto: Denjoe; Sportstock; fredgoldstein; angelmanuelherrero