If you’ve ever sat through a boring online training course and thought “there has to be a better way to do this”, you’ve already identified the problem that instructional designers solve. But what exactly is an instructional designer, and what do they actually do day to day? Let’s break it down.
What is an instructional designer?
An instructional designer (ID) is someone who plans, structures and writes learning content, usually for digital delivery. They take information from a subject matter expert, a policy document or a compliance requirement and transform it into a learning experience that actually helps people develop new knowledge, skills or behaviours.
Think of them as the architect of a course. Before anyone opens an authoring tool or records a video, the instructional designer has already figured out what the learner needs to be able to do, how the content should be structured, and what activities will help the learning stick.
Instructional design vs content creation
One of the biggest misconceptions about instructional design is that it’s the same as putting content into slides. It isn’t. Content creation is about organising what you know. Instructional design is about understanding how people learn, and deliberately engineering an experience around that.
An instructional designer asks questions like:
- What do learners already know, and what’s the gap?
- What do they actually need to be able to do differently after this training?
- What’s the best way to present this content so it’s understood and remembered?
- How will we know the learning has worked?
Those questions sit at the heart of good instructional design, and they shape every decision that follows.
What does an instructional designer do day to day?
The day-to-day work of an instructional designer can vary a lot depending on the type of organisation they work in, but here are the core activities you’ll find in most ID roles.
Analysing the learning need
Before a single word of content gets written, a good instructional designer will spend time understanding the problem. This means talking to stakeholders, reviewing existing materials, and sometimes interviewing the people who will be doing the training. The goal is to figure out whether training is actually the right solution, and if so, what it needs to achieve.
Defining learning outcomes
Learning outcomes are the foundation of any well-designed course. They describe exactly what a learner will be able to do, know or demonstrate by the end of the training. A well-written learning outcome is specific, measurable and focused on behaviour — not just awareness.
Structuring the content
Once the outcomes are clear, the instructional designer maps out how the content will flow. This involves deciding what to include (and just as importantly, what to leave out), how to sequence topics logically, and how to chunk information so it doesn’t overwhelm the learner.
Writing the storyboard
A storyboard is the detailed blueprint for an eLearning course. It describes every screen, every piece of text, every interaction, every piece of audio and every question before anything gets built. For an instructional designer, this is often where most of the work happens. A well-written storyboard makes the development process much smoother and reduces the need for costly revisions later on.
Collaborating with subject matter experts
Instructional designers rarely work alone. They partner closely with subject matter experts (SMEs), the people who have deep knowledge of the topic being trained. The ID’s job is to ask the right questions, extract the key information, and translate it into clear, learner-friendly content. This requires good listening skills, diplomacy and the ability to push back when content is too complex or too dense.
Designing assessments
Questions and assessments aren’t an afterthought in instructional design, they’re built into the learning from the start. A good ID designs assessments that genuinely test whether learners have achieved the learning outcomes, rather than just checking whether they read the content.
Working with developers and multimedia teams
In many eLearning roles, the instructional designer hands off a completed storyboard to a developer who builds it in an authoring tool like Articulate Storyline or Rise. In smaller teams, the ID might build the course themselves. Either way, there’s usually close collaboration with graphic designers, animators and video producers to bring the content to life, often using professional eLearning toolkit.
Reviewing and revising
A big chunk of an instructional designer’s time goes into review cycles. This means gathering feedback from stakeholders and SMEs, checking that content is accurate and on-brand, and refining the course until everyone is happy. It requires patience, attention to detail and a thick skin.
What skills does an instructional designer need?
Instructional design draws on a surprisingly broad range of skills. The most effective IDs tend to be strong in these areas:
- Writing. Clear, concise writing is the backbone of good eLearning content
- Learning theory. Inderstanding how adults learn and what makes content stick
- Structural thinking. The ability to organise complex information logically
- Communication. Working with stakeholders, SMEs and developers at all levels
- Attention to detail. Catching inconsistencies and errors before a course goes live
- Curiosity. Quickly getting up to speed on unfamiliar topics and asking the right questions
Technical skills vary depending on the role, but familiarity with eLearning authoring tools (Articulate Storyline, Rise, Camtasia) and Learning Management Systems (LMSs) is increasingly expected.
Who becomes an instructional designer?
There’s no single path into instructional design. People come from all sorts of backgrounds, including teaching, training, HR, communications, content writing, graphic design and even psychology. What they tend to have in common is an interest in how people learn and a desire to create experiences that make a real difference.
Former teachers are a natural fit, they already understand learning theory, can write clearly for an audience and are used to structuring content for different levels. But it’s a career that’s genuinely open to anyone willing to develop the right skills.
Is instructional design the right career for you?
If you enjoy writing, like making complex things simple, and want your work to have a tangible impact on how people develop, instructional design could be a great fit. It’s a role that sits at the intersection of learning, creativity and strategy, and as organisations invest more in digital learning, demand for skilled IDs continues to grow.
The best way to find out if it’s for you is to get a feel for the process. Our Instructional Design for eLearning course is a practical, self-paced online course that takes you through the full instructional design process from analysing a learning need through to writing a complete eLearning storyboard. It’s suitable for beginners and experienced professionals alike, and comes with templates and resources you can use on real projects right away.
