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Having a learning design model is essential to ensuring your L&D team has a shared understanding and way of working. It also helps your team take stakeholders on a journey and reassure them that there is a method to the madness.

Traditional instructional design models like ADDIE have been dead for many years and replaced (at least at the fringes) by Human-Centred Design methodology. Nevertheless, having a model and knowing how to use it isn't enough, it turns out that good learning design models are multi-layered, and here are some of the critical ingredients that will make your learning design model yield remarkable results.

If you’re familiar with Solvd Together, you’ll know we’re passionate advocates of Human-Centred Design (HCD). It’s baffling to me that you would create any solution without first understanding your audience’s pain points and context. In fact, it’s become a tired 'insight' for L&D "thought leaders" for the last decade, at least on my LinkedIn feed.

Whether you’re using IDEO’s original Design Thinking model or Nick Shackleton-Jones’s ‘5Di’ approach, the core principle remains the same:

Design products and services with the same audience-focused mindset used in the consumer world. Solve real problems for your target audience while aligning with business ambitions and driving measurable impact.

For example, if your business strategy hinges on employees adopting Widget X, your learning design model must foster an environment where using Widget X feels like "the way things are done around here". Training might be part of the solution—or it might not be needed at all.

The research phase (Empathise, Discover, or Inspiration, depending on which model you're using) should uncover the social, financial, environmental, and technological factors influencing behaviour. Your task then is straightforward: change the influencing factors to make the desired behaviour the path of least resistance.

A winning mindset for learning design embraces this reality:

People don’t do what they’re told; they find the quickest route to success. Your job is to show them what success looks like and make the path as easy and obvious as possible.

The second ingredient is User Experience (UX) Design. You don’t need to be a UX expert to appreciate its importance. Once you start recognising bad design, it’s impossible to unsee it. In learning design, UX principles are indispensable for creating seamless, engaging experiences.

Here are some guiding principles for UX in learning design:

• “Design as if your audience is drunk”: Busy employees will default to familiar routes. Your design must make the desired path exceptionally clear and easy.
• “Once burned, twice shy”: A poor first interaction can alienate users forever. Get it right the first time.‍
• “Nudge”: Map out existing behaviours and design small nudges to guide users toward the desired actions.‍
• “Organisational usability”: Think of your business as a product. This perspective shifts how you approach designing employee experiences.

A well-designed user experience ensures that your learning solutions are intuitive, accessible, and effective—even for the busiest employees.

The third ingredient, and Solvd Together's latest favourite, is Outcome-Driven Design (ODD), a concept trademarked by BIA.studio, an architecture firm in Boston. In a nutshell, rather than focusing on what is now, ODD starts by envisioning the desired future state and works backward to figure out what needs to happen to achieve it.

Practical Applications of ODD

1. Business and People Strategy:
   Define a 3-year vision for your organization, then plan backwards to identify the specific tactics and milestones needed to make it a reality.
2. Project Definition:
   Help stakeholders to articulate what the problem is now, and what an ideal future would look like (your Outcome).
3. Design Phase:
   Collaborate with your team to design solutions that will deliver the Outcome and do so with consideration of the context of the target audience.

For instance, if adopting Widget X is critical for your company’s success, ODD encourages you to ask: If we lived in a world where employees were using Widget X, what would be the case?

I like to use the example of life experiences: Something could happen tomorrow that would convince you to turn vegan. It will be different for everyone, but we can assume that some sort of exposure to the horrors of industrial farming, maybe with a personal edge could turn even the staunchest carnivore. Documentary films like Cowspiracy are brilliant design case studies because they are mindset and behaviour changing digital experiences.

Once you’ve captured hearts, your next step is to design practical, actionable solutions that make it easy for employees to start using Widget X—and keep using it.

Great learning design is more than just going through the steps of your learning design model like Human-Centred Design, it's a layered cake of mindsets, skills, and behaviours. A singular view is why so many of our clients struggle to embed this new way of working into their teams. UX and ODD help bridge the gap between outcome, intention and action, ensuring that your designs are not only inspiring but effective and aligned with business strategy.

By combining Human-Centred Design, UX principles, and Outcome-Driven Design, you’re equipped with a much more complete learning design model. These ingredients are the foundation of transformative learning experiences and organisational design that changes culture and behaviour to meet your business's challenges.