If courseware is marketed to a particular industry, then the training team should expect the vendors to explain where and how it fits in. Since most software training is competency-based, it's easy to make the courseware technically accurate but very unfriendly. Each piece of courseware must meet certain minimal conditions. It should be modular and consist of a series of lessons, where each section covers an area of the product. Because the manuals and training material are what students will have sitting on their desks after the class, they must be easy to reference quickly.
Exercises are also critical to reinforce the material learned.
Though students may say the exercises are monotonous, drills are important to long-term learning. If the visual impact of the training material is really negative, the student will have a difficult time getting motivated to learn. Students are likely to be somewhat nervous using new software for the first time, so the easier the manual is to use, the faster they're going to learn. It's also important that the courseware motivates students by explaining why features will benefit them. It needs to satisfy the course objectives and promote active learning through questionnaires and practical exercises.