Do you believe Design Thinking Should Replace Instructional Design?
Rest in peace instructional design: 1946-2017. Cause of death - Design Thinking
Being a disciple of Robert Gagné and loyal to a fault to my Alma Mater, I believe it's a bridge too far to say instructional design is dead. It also goes too far to say that design thinking replaces instructional design.
When we built call center new hire training in my Telecom days, we used the DACUM approach for task analysis and created, essentially, a journey map much like is used in a design thinking approach. We created an end-to-end learning experience. I even remember collaborating with the human-centered design team who complemented our work by studying the work environment and making changes such as lighting, chairs, and user interface of software.
All that said, I do believe that design thinking brings an added value to the instructional design profession. Design thinking reminds us of the importance of empathy. The power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another person’s feelings is critical. Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, noted in his article “A Lesson in Empathy”, “Empathy is at the heart of design. Without understanding what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task.”
Classic instructional designers might say, "hey, we empathize." But, I'm not sure they do. I believe the instructional design process is indeed that - a process. While analysis is a part of the process, it often focuses more on the "what" than the "who."
Design thinking goes all-in on the "who." And, that's the key. That's more important. In our VUCA world, the "what" changes so often that it's almost pointless to build learning. But, the "who", or the person that is experiencing the world and has feelings about the world, is constant and the struggles are real.
No, instructional design isn't dead, but it needs a strong revision. Let's focus on capturing a piece of design thinking and study the struggles of our user. The result will be both learning solutions and non-learning solutions that lead to a simplified learner experience and to more energized and productive employees.
What do you think? Let's start a conversation.
Thoughts my own, not my employer.
Agree 100% Barry, and would extend the thought further. Yes, instructional design needs to evolve. Similarly, to stay relevant in this VUCA world, L&D organizations need some disruptive evolution as well. But that’s another tooic😊
I'm a classically trained instructional designer, but I have been heavily influenced by engineering and IT frameworks and models. Design thinking and RAD enhance ADDIE.
Great article - Design thinking is more of a compliment to instructional design than it is a competitor. In grad school, I learned instructional design AND interface/interaction design. No matter the discipline (including others previously mentioned in the mix), we should always design with the learner/end user in mind.
Yes. The emphasis on empathy is key. I'm sharing this with my UC Santa Cruz peeps.
Thoughtful questions. Thanks for starting this conversation. My thoughts below: DT doesn't replace ID, and it never will. It's like asking, "Will design thinking replace graphic design / industrial design / UI/UX design?" Not mutually exclusive, nor are they even in the same frame... Design thinking is a methodology to solve anything creatively. Instructional design is a discipline for crafting educational opportunities for people. How the content is structured, organized, visually designed, distributed, etc. Design thinking can be the methodology of choice to unpack+understand (empathize, needs analysis, etc.) and set the path for prototyping and testing a solution. ID is what happens in the middle of Ideation/Prototyping. Much like graphic design happens within the design thinking process for creating a new brand identity for a struggling business.