Canva Tutorial and Best Practices

This article aims to walk through how to use Canva and some of the best practices to be successful!

While using images for the Clue, Question, Answers, or Insight is entirely optional, adding imagery can make your Program more visually appealing, engaging, and memorable for Players but is by no means required.

Accessing Canva and Using Templates

The quickest way to access Canva is to go through our Knowledge Center article Canva Templates for Programs, Series, Challenges, and Questions.

You can scroll through the different pictures on this page and click the links under them. Alternatively, you can find all the links and a sizing template at the bottom of the article. After clicking on a template link, you will be taken to a page that looks like this:

You MUST have a Canva account to access these pages. However, if you do not have an account, you can make one at www.canva.com/signup.

Once at this page, click Use template.

When you get on the design page, remember that this is a copy of the provided template, so whatever you do to your copy will be custom to you.

Canva Basics

There are three primary parts of an image in Canva.

Text
Image
Colorshape

Here are the best practices to maximize the use of each of them. Remember, when designing images for your challenge, always remember: the simpler, the better.

Text

All fonts are different. We recommend using a large enough font to be readable and quickly recognizable, like a serif, slab serif, or sans serif font. Decorative fonts can be challenging for Players to read, especially when faced with a countdown timer.
Never make the text font lower than 21. Otherwise, it is very difficult to see in the app.
Use a contrasting font color to the background.
Allow white space around your words, so they have room to “breathe.”
Ensure adequate line spacing for readability
You can also create an overlay shape under the text to make it more readable.

The text tab will look like this:

You can then click any of the options in the tab to pick the right text size you need for your image. You can also select Font combinations and mess around with the templates that Canva offers.

Images and Grids

Images are one of the most crucial aspects of your templates. Grids assist with making sure your images fit perfectly in your templates.

When using images, it is our best practice to stay consistent. If you use an image in your clue, be sure to use the same image in your insight. This will add repetition to your Qs and help your learners retain information better.

Simple way to design a CLUE and INSIGHT

Here's a simple method for designing a Clue and an Insight that is super efficient and doesn't require design