 Did you know that memory retention improves when we use concise narration and graphics? And that memory suffers when we include irrelevant stories, details, graphics and sounds in eLearning. As a designer, you can use Mayer's coherence principle to help you avoid information that isn't related to the content. It helps you focus on what's really important in a scene, including concise narration, contextual graphics and animation, and appropriate audio. Let's say you have a scene about circles. Did you find that scene distracting? As a learner, your brain tried to make sense of what was happening. It desperately tried to put the pieces together, but it had to work harder because the scene was full of conflicting information. Granted, this is an extreme example of what not to do, but it goes to show how distracting any unnecessary content can be. During this scene, your brain moved into overload, and all of the unnecessary elements blocked your ability to learn the essential content. Let's say you remove the text, extra graphics and distracting audio. What do you notice? This is a circle. The circle is perfect in shape. Circles are found in mathematics, art and architecture. The words enter through your ears. The graphics enter through your eyes. Your brain engages the auditory and visual information together, and you learn that these are circles. The coherence principle helps developers avoid overwhelming the learner with clutter-like unrelated words, graphics and sounds. It teaches us to avoid any on-screen action that isn't related to the content. It emphasizes using concise, well-thought-out content that brings the lesson to life, and it's always centered on the instructional goal. You're now on your way to improving your designs and creating deeper e-learning lessons.