Over ten years ago, my wife came across a book that changed our lives. We were preparing to start a family and were reading, discussing, and exploring different ideas about the kind of home and family we hoped to create. During that season, my wife read Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living by Tsh Oxenreider. To be clear, the book has nothing to do with online education—no mention of learning management systems, course design, or pedagogical strategies. Instead, it focuses on the value of simple, uncluttered, and organized physical spaces, and the practical and psychological benefits that come with them. Though I didn’t read it until sometime later, the opening chapters captivated me. Sometimes, you can’t just rearrange what you have—you need to let go of some of it. Then, what remains must be thoughtfully arranged in a way that fosters peace, beauty, and purpose.

Over the past year, I have had the privilege of serving as the Curriculum and Technology Specialist in the newly formed School of Religion at Hampton University. While my degrees are primarily in philosophy and ethics, I find great satisfaction in course development, exploring AI in education, instructional design, and LMS work. Recently, someone said they were impressed with my work, even though I don’t have formal degrees in the field. That prompted me to reflect, and I soon realized the reason: I bring the same principle to digital spaces that my wife and I practice in our home—clutter-free living.

When creating online learning environments, it is crucial to eliminate clutter in all its forms: excessive text; irrelevant images; pointless videos; overuse of font colors, underlining, italics, and bolding; multiple fonts or font sizes on the same page, unlabeled or broken links, long paragraphs without spacing or visual breaks; unnecessary navigation buttons or menu items; inconsistent terminology; and needless repetition are all examples of clutter that can frustrate, distract, mislead, and ultimately result in a poor learning experience for students. When this happens, the joy of learning is lost. Students may even begin to believe the problem lies with them—that they’re simply not cut out for online education. In some cases, this discouragement prevents them from pursuing their education altogether, especially if they are older and unable to attend in-person classes consistently.

But the issue may not be with the student at all. Instead, the real problem could be a poorly designed course—one created by a developer, team, or professor who focused solely on content and neglected its presentation. While content mastery is undeniably essential and always will be, education is about more than just content. How tragic it would be to miss out on a truly valuable gift simply because the packaging was so poor that we didn’t bother to open it—or gave up too soon.

This is an easily preventable tragedy. While additional principles are needed to create an engaging and rewarding learning experience in online spaces, a vigilant commitment to a clutter-free approach is a major step in the right direction. When speaking with subject matter experts about their online courses, I take every opportunity to remind them that they may be brilliant in their field and gifted in the classroom—but that doesn’t automatically translate to the online environment. Online teaching requires a different kind of intentionality and design mindset, and a commitment to a clutter-free experience is an essential ingredient.

Here are five guiding principles to help course designers create clutter-free online spaces and give students the best opportunity to flourish:

1. Clarity over complexity
2. Every element must serve a purpose
3. Less is often more
4. Consistency builds trust
5. Keep navigation simple

While these principles may seem self-explanatory, I want to conclude with a few remarks on principles #1, #2, and #4. Regarding “Clarity over complexity,” course designers should simply ask: Is this more complex than it needs to be for the purpose I’m trying to accomplish? Complexity might give the impression that the professor is highly intelligent and the subject matter deeply profound, but it could just as easily be a chimera—a product of intellectual pride. Is the goal to impress students and leave them bewildered, or to serve them through clear, thoughtful presentation that helps them succeed?

The second principle is especially important: “Every element must serve a purpose.” In fact, the other four principles could arguably be subsumed under this guiding idea. Take text coloring as an example. I find it especially distracting (and annoying if I am honest) when a course uses different text colors to emphasize instructions or key points without any clear pattern. A professor might use one color in one section, a highlight in another, and yet another color just a few paragraphs later to accomplish the same purpose. This introduces a subtle sense of chaos and, at its core, is irrational. Consistency is a hallmark of good instructional design—especially when paired with a commitment to ensuring that every element, every single one, serves a clear purpose.

Guiding Principle #4 is “Consistency builds trust.” In my current role, I am deeply committed to creating consistent looking courses across our School at the University. To give just one example, consider font size. In our online courses, we use Arial for all text—no exceptions. But font size matters too. On any given Canvas page, there is a major heading at the top, followed by section titles and body paragraphs. Major headings use one size font (also in bold), section titles use another size (also in bold), and regular text another. We also insert one line of space between the end of each section and the beginning of the next. But why does this matter? How does consistency build trust?

After taking classes in our school for more than one term, students begin to intuitively recognize what different font sizes and line breaks signify. As a result, less cognitive energy is required, contributing to a simpler and more pleasant learning experience. They can easily tell when one section ends and another begins, locate information quickly during review, and engage with the material without experiencing cognitive overload. While this level of intentional design may seem optional, it isn’t—at least not if we genuinely care about the students we serve. Our goal isn’t just to receive good reviews or make teaching more convenient. Rather, course designers must go the extra mile with a commitment to uncompromising excellence, offering students a lean, clutter-free experience that allows them to engage in a restful, curious, and focused manner.