By Dr. Hope Dugan
When thinking about designing learning experiences, there is a persistent question that keeps leaders, instructional designers, and teachers awake at night: How do we make learning stick? Often we resort to providing content in the form of modules, meetings, white papers, and training sessions. The pervading thinking being, well, I taught it, so they should know it. The thing is, however, it's not just about delivering content—it's about creating experiences that resonate, engage, and transform. And the key to that shift? Human-centered design.
Human-centered design (HCD) is an approach that focuses on the people you are designing for, understanding their needs, challenges, and motivations, and crafting solutions that address those realities. When applied to learning, it has the potential to shift from one-size-fits-all programs to experiences that truly impact lives.
Why Traditional Learning Approaches Fall Flat
Too often, professional development and learning programs focus on information transfer. Think about how many times educators or leaders sit through workshops packed with slides and handouts, only to return to their daily routines without any lasting change. (In my experience most of the trainings I attended fell into this category.)
The problem? Learning isn't just about receiving information—it's about making meaning of it and understanding it enough to transfer the new learning into your routine.
Traditional methods tend to be:
One-size-fits-all: Designed for broad audiences without considering individual needs or readiness to learn the new material.
Event-based: Treated as isolated workshops or training sessions.
Content-heavy: Focused on delivering information rather than fostering application and reflection.
These approaches might check compliance boxes but rarely lead to meaningful behavior change. The good news is there is another approach that takes these things into consideration: Human-centered design.
What Is Human-Centered Design?
At its core, human-centered design is about understanding learners' experiences, challenges, and aspirations. It involves:
Empathizing with learners: Understanding their needs, pain points, and contexts.
Defining the real problem: Shifting the focus from symptoms to root causes.
Ideating solutions: Brainstorming ways to address those challenges meaningfully.
Prototyping and testing: Creating and refining learning experiences based on feedback.
Implementing and iterating: Continuously improving based on learner experiences.
By centering learning design on people, not content, we create experiences that meet learners where they are—and help them get where they need to go.
How Human-Centered Design Makes Learning Stick
Let’s break down how HCD principles can make learning more impactful:
1. Design for Context
Learning isn't effective in a vacuum. Human-centered design considers the context in which learners operate. For example:
What challenges do they face in their daily roles?
What resources do they have access to?
What excites, motivates, or frustrates them?
By understanding these factors, we can create learning that feels relevant and practical.
2. Focus on Application
People retain information better when they immediately apply it. According to the National Training Laboratories’ Learning Pyramid, learners retain:
5% of what they hear in a lecture (Think keynote or lecture)
30% of what they see in a demonstration (‘How to’ model)
75% of what they practice by doing (Job-embedded training)
Human-centered design prioritizes hands-on, actionable learning experiences that allow learners to apply new knowledge in real-time.
3. Create Feedback Loops
Reflection and feedback are crucial components of human-centered design. Learners need:
Opportunities to reflect on their learning
Meaningful feedback to adjust and improve
Building these feedback loops into learning programs ensures that learning isn’t a one-and-done event but a continuous process.
4. Emphasize Emotional Engagement
People learn best when they feel emotionally connected to the material. Human-centered design taps into that emotional engagement by:
Sharing stories that resonate
Designing experiences that evoke curiosity and joy
Creating safe spaces for risk-taking and exploration
Practical Tips for Applying Human-Centered Design
Ready to make your learning programs more human-centered? Here are some practical tips to get started:
Start with interviews/focus groups. Talk to your learners. What are their pain points? What do they need from their learning experiences? How do they learn best?
Prototype and test. Don’t aim for perfection on the first try. Instead, create small-scale prototypes, test them, and refine them based on feedback.
Design for action. Ensure every learning experience has a clear path for applying new knowledge. Equally important, ensure there is time set aside to apply the new concepts and learn them at a deeper level.
Build in reflection and feedback. Create space for learners to reflect on what they learned and receive clear, actionable feedback.
Final Thoughts: The Future of Learning is Human
Professional learning is about more than delivering content. It’s about creating connections, fostering growth, and empowering staff to take action. Human-centered design offers a powerful framework to do that.
By focusing on your people —their needs, challenges, and motivations—we can create experiences that are transformative.
So, let’s stop designing for compliance and start designing for connection. Let’s make learning that sticks.
💡 Want more insights on creating human-centered learning experiences? Follow me for practical strategies to make your learning programs more effective and impactful.
Dr. Hope Dugan is a senior partner with K20Connect. When not developing, designing, and delivering bold professional learning experiences, you can find her at home with her husband and one very spoiled Cavalier King Charles spaniel. Want to learn more? Check out her website.
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