Leading With Empathy: Bringing Design Thinking Best Practices into Instructional Design
Lately, I've been reflecting on how Design Thinking practices can be used to support Instructional Design. Design Thinking is an iterative process for solving complex problems. One foundational component of Design Thinking is that it is human-centric at its core. Design Thinking facilitates human-centered design, meaning designers design to address the core needs of the individuals they are creating for.
There are five stages of the Design Thinking Process:
Stage 1: Empathize (i.e., uncover your users' needs through research)
Stage 2: Define (i.e., identify users' needs and problems)
Step 3: Ideate (i.e., brainstorm potential solutions)
Step 4: Prototype (i.e., bring a possible solution to life)
Step 5: Test (i.e., test your solution to uncover what works and what doesn't before eventually launching the product or service)
I want to spend time in this post discussing how this first stage – empathize – can be readily applied to Instructional Design.
Leading With Empathy
In Instructional Design, a needs assessment is conducted by an Instructional Designer early on in the design process to gather information from the stakeholder requesting the training (i.e., the client) about matters related to the target audience, what problems the training is meant to solve, what training needs exist, what format the learning should take, etc.
While the information acquired is undoubtedly helpful in informing an Instructional Designer's course planning and strategy, Design Thinking would encourage us to push this analysis further. Instructional Designers should attempt to put themselves in the shoes of the learners they are designing learning material for, and this early stage of instructional design is a perfect time to do this. By keeping the learner's perspectives front of mind, it will be possible to create content that addresses their actual pain points and unmet needs.
For instance, if you are designing for corporate clients, you will want to consider: Who are the learners you are designing for? What are their motivations? Where and how will they apply their learning? What are their pain points with training in the past? What unmet needs do they have?
Tools to Help You Empathize With Learners
In our efforts to empathize with and understand our learners, we should try and connect with them by conducting user research. The following is a list of tools that can be useful to research users and their challenges:
Interviews: Speak one-on-one with learners about the joys and challenges they face with learning.
Field Research: Visit where your learners spend their time. For instance, if you know you are designing training for baristas working for a specific chain of coffee shops, try to visit a location and observe them in their roles. What problems may they face? What sort of training may they need? Do they have time on the job to complete said training?
Focus Groups: Get some potential learners together to discuss their experiences as a group.
Empathy Maps: Based on your user research, use empathy maps to visually synthesize learners' attitudes and behaviours and gain deeper insight into this specific audience of learners. This empathy map can help support the construction of learner personas.
Journey Maps: Based on the insights you acquired during your user research, document a specific experience your target learners will go through. This involves identifying and plotting each step in the learning journey, the learner's needs at each step, and their feelings through each stage. Crucially, pain points and delights at the various steps are also tracked. The benefit of this approach is that it enables the designer to identify areas to provide a better experience.
When we design with learners at the forefront, everyone benefits. Stakeholders can facilitate meaningful training while meeting their business goals and learners' actual needs are met.
Have you incorporated Design Thinking into your Instructional Design practices? How do you design with empathy for your learners? Please leave a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Sources
The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process
Design Thinking Approach to eLearning Emphasizes Empathy
Making the Link Between Design Thinking and Instructional Design
How To Use Design Thinking In Learning Experience Design
Design Thinking in Instructional Design - The Rocketship to Success
Source of image
Photo by cottonbro studio from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-and-woman-talking-to-each-other-7430332/
Comments
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What a great approach to instructional design! I think the human element is so important, especially in online learning. Thanks for sharing these ideas.
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Agreed, I like this kind of thinking and structure to help define what we do.
