The Visual Lounge

What happens when everyone can create AI videos with just a text prompt? We’re entering the “watch bait era” where AI-generated short clips may start dominating social media feeds, making it harder to distinguish between AI content, misinformation, and reality. The technology is improving but still has real limitations. While AI avatars and lip-sync are getting better, we’re still dealing with 8-s...

We've all sat through presentations that feel like a performance, polished, professional, but somehow disconnected. The speaker hits every point perfectly, yet we walk away feeling nothing. So, what's missing? For this episode, we're revisiting a conversation with Leslie Chamberlain, Head of Customer Success at Gibbs Smith Education. Leslie knows that great presentations aren't about perfection, t...

What if your carefully crafted training course could become a content campaign that actually drives behavior change? Most L&D professionals create amazing content that gets consumed once and forgotten. But what if that single course could spawn dozens of touchpoints that reinforce learning over time? We're seeing a shift where smart L&D teams are borrowing from marketing playbooks, and it'...

Have you ever watched a learning video and felt completely overwhelmed, even though the topic itself wasn't that complicated? That feeling of mental exhaustion is cognitive overload, and it's often the result of poor instructional design. Host Matt Pierce introduces Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), a framework that explains how our brains process information and, more importantly, how we can design le...

Lo-fi and authentic works. Just look at the best short-form creators, they’ve figured out engagement. They know how to be authentic, intentional, and drop hooks that make people actually want to watch. No matter what kind of video’s you make, what can you learn from how short-form creators do it? In this episode of The Visual Lounge, host Matt Pierce explores how creators, educators, and businesse...

We've all been there, clicking on an instructional video only to sit through minutes of backstory when all we wanted was the solution. In a world where attention spans are shrinking, viewers want one thing: get to the point. For this episode, we're revisiting a fantastic conversation with Doug Brunner, Customer Education Manager at TechSmith. Doug knows firsthand what makes instructional content w...

AI is transforming how we create content, but there’s also a growing problem: AI slop. It’s the flood of auto-generated videos, images, and text that takes up space without adding value; and we’re seeing it everywhere. So how do you use AI to enhance your work without the noise?   Host Matt Pierce introduces TechSmith’s HUMAN Framework, a practical approach to keeping the human element at the...

What if pro-level video creation didn't require a film crew, expensive equipment, or weeks of production time? Imagine literally describing what you want and having it appear on screen.  We're living through a moment where AI video generation has gone from science fiction to "just about usable" reality. The technology is still rough around the edges (and yes, you might find yourself shouting...

Customer education is a must-have for a lot of businesses these days, especially software companies. But reading thick manuals and wordy passages of jargon is no one’s idea of a good time.  So what’s the key to great customer education? For this episode, we look back at an older conversation we had with Greg Mead. Back then, he was Senior Instructional Designer at ClickUp, so we talked about...

What if we had to rebuild L&D from scratch? What could we do differently? There have been rumblings in the L&D world that roles are gradually going to be replaced by AI. While we don’t predict an L&D apocalypse coming our way, maybe it’s time to start thinking differently about the role of L&D in broader business terms.  Joining this episode is Tracie Cantu, Chief Learning Str...

The internet’s relationship with visuals and video has been a rocky ship over the past few years, constantly pivoting and evolving. And most creators are either playing catch up or are stuck playing by the same old rules with limited success.  But luckily, we have Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder and CMO of Orbit Media Studios, on the show to share his current strategies on how to make your visual...

Need to create an e-learning presentation but don’t have an eye for good visuals? This episode is for you!  We revisit a great past episode with Diane Elkins, instructional design pro and owner of Artisan Learning. There’s so much solid advice in this episode on what works, what to avoid, and how visuals impact the learning experience (probably more than you think). Diane explains how bad vis...

It’s time to ditch the lectures. The secret to creating powerful learning content that people actually pay attention to and use in their daily lives is all about action.  Dr. Karl Kapp introduces us to action-based learning in this episode – his go-to tactic for making learning more engaging, useful, and practical. Karl is a Professor of Instructional Technology at Bloomsburg University and t...

How do some people just seem to command attention the moment they walk into a room? They’ve nailed their personal brand. Dr. Dustin York, who's worked with everyone from the Obama campaign to Nike, breaks down the science behind personal branding and shares actionable tips you can start using today. Today he’s a Professor at Maryville University of St. Louis and a professional speaker for his busi...

What if all that time you spent learning Python on YouTube or mastering Photoshop through online tutorials could actually count toward formal education credits? For this episode, we’re at the U.S. Distance Learning Association’s (USDLA) latest conference, to talk with Dr. Joe Sallustio, veteran higher ed expert and Co-Founder and Host of The EdUp Experience podcast. We chat about how learning has...

What makes you click away immediately from a video vs. stay glued to the screen? Maybe it’s overwhelming background music or cursor movements that make you feel seasick. We’ve all seen videos that don’t quite click for us (and perhaps made a few of them ourselves). So, in this episode, we look at common instructional video mistakes to avoid to keep your learners watching. It’s an older episode and...

Learning and development isn’t just up to the folks in the L&D department anymore. In this episode, we hear how modern workplace communication and learning extend to the wider organization, thanks to technology breaking down barriers in visual communication. Host Matt Pierce sits down with David Kelly, former Chairman and CEO of The Learning Guild, to explore how L&D has changed over his c...

Want to know the secrets of the L&D content pros? Become an even better visual designer today with these simple, quick tips for improving your approach to creating content. We hear from three visual design and learning strategy experts in part two of our special 250th episode celebration. Hear how to escape the “curse of knowledge” from Abbey Cooke, Director of Training & Onboarding at Eff...

We like to ask anyone who joins The Visual Lounge, what’s your one take you want to give our audience? It’s an open-ended question so we always get a good variety of unique answers and love hearing the advice, life lessons, and mindset changes we can apply to using video and images in our work.  To celebrate our 250th episode milestone, we bring together friends of The Visual Lounge to ask th...

Is video always the best way to teach something? Video has transformed the world of workplace learning and still makes up a huge part of it today. Just about any workplace, big or small, can create training videos with minimal cost. But it doesn’t always make it the right tool for the job. In this throwback episode of The Visual Lounge, host Matt Pierce revisits a conversation with Jonathan Halls,...

In just a few short years, AI usage has boomed in the content creation world. Not just that, it’s also changed a LOT, and in ways many of us never predicted. In this episode, Matt Pierce takes us back to 2023 when many of us were still experimenting with AI and had bold predictions about its future. He asked the audience on LinkedIn for predictions, fears, and insights into how people were using A...

Have you ever felt a little out of your depth when making an extra complex or brand new video type? Maybe AI could help. Host Matt Pierce shares his experience as someone used to creating training content, adapting to creating content for a commercial. We hear about the script drafting process, the challenges of balancing feasibility, including budget and resources, with creative ideas, and the di...

What’s really holding your learners back from absorbing the information they need? We’ve all been through training at some point that’s either confusing or too broad, or perhaps the kind that puts you to sleep. The truth is that training and learning design are complicated. It’s a balancing act between the learners themselves (how they learn, their interests and attention span), the designers (the...

You have just five seconds. So hook ‘em in, keep them watching, and make those seconds count. Starting with a clear hook isn’t just for YouTubers looking to make it big. Even if you’re creating instructional videos that people have to watch for their job, you have just a few seconds to grab attention. If you don’t, the video might still play but their concentration will be long gone. When you put...

Here’s a secret… most people aren’t naturals on camera. For many, it can be daunting and can even hold us back from trying to make videos in the first place. But if you’re running training or making content, video is no doubt a part of your job. So how do you look good on camera? It’s a question we hear a lot, so we pulled this 2022 episode from out of the archive, which has some great tips from D...