Basic golden rules for designing materials

Rules! Who needs 'em, amirite? Me. I do. I like rules. Life is difficult enough without some guidance about what to do and what not to do. There's a caveat, however.

I worked in the dorm snack shop during college. I knew that if I ensured all the money was facing the same direction in the drawer, it would be easier to count at the end of the night. I was diligent about arranging the money and won praise for my efforts (not much is expected of a freshman). Then, one night, we got slammed. I was ringing non-stop and just shoved money into the drawer as fast as I could. During a lull, my manager looked at my drawer and chastised me because the money wasn't in the same direction. Consequently, it never was again. My manager had a hissy fit every night, and I had to stay longer because I had to arrange all the money at once during closing. It was worth it. Non, je ne regrette rien!

This could have been us.

See, I like rules and will gladly follow them until someone tells me I need to follow them. I guess I'm a (passive aggressive) rebel that way!

​I'm not a cashier anymore. At least, I don't think so ("Okay. You ordered a large Blended Learning Smoothie with ILT, online modules, coaching and an engagement boost. Will that be all? We have some delicious blueberries."). But there are still rules that I don't break, only this time, I made them.

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Here are my basic, bare minimum, Top 10 Rules for creating training materials.

1. No underlines ever, but you can use “rules” under titles and subtitles.
2. Use centering for titles sparingly and not at all for paragraph text. Same rule applies for ALL CAPs. Bolding and underlining all caps is THE WORST. As for bold – remember, if everything is bold, then nothing is bold. Same rule applies to italics.
3. Do not use clipart. Use only photos. But don't use silhouettes or any images of people that do not have faces. I actually don't mind them, but clients tend to complain about it.
4. Alignment means something. If part of the text is out of alignment with the rest of the text, it will draw the eye. There should be a reason for making it stand out.
5. Use bulleted lists when the order does not matter. Use numbered lists when the order does matter or when numbers are being used for reference (like in this list). Do not use bulleted lists for instructions unless the learner can complete the task using any of the items in the list.
6. Watch your contrast. Make sure the background does not make the text hard to read. I recommend avoiding gradient backgrounds for this reason.
7. Use the following MS Word features as intended: paragraph spacing, line spacing, headers and footers, page numbers, table of contents. Extra credit for using creating and using styles.
8. Use the following MS PowerPoint features as intended: paragraph spacing, line spacing, headers and footers, master slides and layouts. (Note: Make PowerPoint comply with your needs, not vice versa).
9. If you must have several bullet points on slides or in documents, do not go beyond level two. Rewrite the text or redesign the document, if necessary.
10. Use animation to guide the eye and/or reinforce a message or concept – not to make a slide “interesting.”

I realize that I did not explain why I believe these things. I learned everything I know from reading The Non-Designer's Design Book, Microsoft Manual of Style, and other books and classes along the way. 

Feel free to ask me why in the comments. Why do I ban underlining? What did it ever do to me? Underlining knows what it did!  I'd love to tell you in excruciating detail.
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I'm forgetting something. Oh, right. The course should be well-designed and effective. That's a rule too, but everyone knows you can't go up to 11.

What are your golden rules?