 When was the last time you saw an e-learning slide, a newspaper graphic, or a PowerPoint slide with weird text and an awkward graphic placement, and thought they could have done better? We often see graphics with text placed in a tiny legend off to the side or in a weird font that makes it hard to understand, and a learner will probably skip anything that's too hard to understand. Meyer's Contiguity Principle helps us improve the quality of our graphics by making sure on-screen text and narration aligns with the graphics. This may seem simple, easy even, but let's take a closer look at what this means for e-learning designers and how it improves knowledge retention in your learners. Start by placing graphic information on the graphic itself instead of in a legend. In this image about the parts of a circle, it's easier for the learner to remember the parts when they're superimposed over the image instead of labeled and then explained in a key. It's much more difficult for your learners to follow along with the narration and learn the parts of the circle if they have to listen to the narration, look for the circle part, look at the circle for the corresponding letter, and then check back with the legend to make sure it's correct. By the time your learner has done all of these steps, the narration and any accompanying on-screen animation has moved on. It's much simpler and easier just to label the graphic. Myers Contiguity Principle shouldn't only be applied to explanatory graphics. Any time you're putting text on screen, you should try to put it as close to the associated graphics and narration as makes sense. It reduces the amount of time your learners spend moving their eyes back and forth across the screen, trying to make sense of the content. Finally, it also applies to quizzes and tests. The instructions, question, the learner's answer, and the feedback all on the same page. All too often we find quizzes where the feedback and correct answers are on the last page after the learner has completed the test. By that point, it's harder for the learner to associate the feedback with the question in any meaningful way. Instead of distracting graphics and text, using the Contiguity Principle in your next module can help you improve knowledge retention and learner engagement. It should also help you avoid creating any of your own weirdly spaced slides and the awkward looks from your own learners.