What is instructional design?

Instructional design is the practice of planning and building learning experiences so that people gain specific knowledge or skills. It starts from what learners need to be able to do, then chooses the content, activities, media and assessments that will get them there.

Reviewed by Clark Quinn, Chief Learning Strategist Updated October 28, 2026

Example

A software company’s customer success team keeps answering the same questions about a reporting feature, so they ask L&D for “a video about reports”. The instructional designer starts by asking what customers get wrong. The answer is specific: customers can find the reports, but they filter the data incorrectly and draw the wrong conclusions.

So the designer sets one objective (build a filtered report that answers a given business question) and designs around it: a short demo video, a practice task in a sandbox account, and a three-question quiz with feedback on the most common filter mistakes. The team agrees to judge success by the number of support tickets on the topic. The final deliverable is smaller than the original request and aimed at the real problem.

How it works

Instructional design follows a cycle that most models share, whatever names they give the steps.

1. Analyze the need

The designer defines the performance problem, the audience and the constraints. A training needs analysis confirms whether training is the right fix, or whether the problem sits in a process, a tool or a missing incentive.

2. Set objectives

The designer writes learning objectives that describe what learners will be able to do, using observable verbs. Bloom’s taxonomy helps pick the right level of thinking for the job, from recalling facts to making judgment calls.

3. Design the experience

The designer chooses the format and the sequence: self-paced modules, video, live sessions, practice activities or a mix. Each activity and assessment should map to an objective. The plan is usually captured in a design document and a storyboard that reviewers can approve before production starts.

4. Develop and deliver

The materials get built, reviewed by subject matter experts, piloted with a small group and launched, usually through the organization’s learning platform.

5. Evaluate and revise

The designer checks whether learners met the objectives and whether performance on the job changed, then updates the training. A course stays in this cycle for as long as it is in use.

Common instructional design models

• ADDIE: the ADDIE model runs through Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. It was built as a linear process, though most teams now loop back between phases.
• SAM (Successive Approximation Model): builds a rough prototype early and improves it in short cycles of review and revision.
• Gagné’s nine events of instruction: a lesson-level sequence that runs from gaining the learner’s attention and stating the objective to assessing performance and supporting transfer to the job.
• Backward design: starts from the evidence that will show learning happened, then plans the instruction that leads to it.

ADDIE and SAM describe how to run a project. Gagné’s events and backward design describe how to shape the learning itself, so teams often combine one of each.

What an instructional designer does

Instructional designers work with subject matter experts (SMEs), who know the content, and turn that knowledge into training people can follow and use at work. Typical tasks include interviewing SMEs, writing objectives and scripts, building storyboards, creating content in authoring tools, writing assessment questions and reviewing evaluation data. In smaller teams the same person may also produce video and manage the learning platform.

A large part of the job is deciding what to leave out. An SME can usually list far more than a learner needs, and the designer cuts the content back to what supports the objectives.

Why it matters for L&D teams

• Training tied to performance. Starting from what people need to do keeps courses focused on job outcomes rather than on covering information.
• Shorter, clearer courses. Cutting content that does not serve an objective saves learner time and makes the important parts easier to find.
• Measurable results. Clear objectives make it possible to write valid assessments and to check whether training worked.
• Consistency at scale. A repeatable process lets a small team produce many courses to the same standard.