So, Bloganuary is apparently an organized thing with prompts. Today’s prompt is “why I write” and because I don’t always like to follow instructions, I’m switching it up to why I design (while still reluctantly calling myself a designer, because it still feels to me like…I’m just a little kid trying to wear high heels and act real professional).
Why I design is a long story, but I was reading How People Learn a few minutes ago and this quote really captures the essence for me. It’s all about how people feel as they learn — are they welcomed? Empowered? Invited to engage? Motivated?
Without attention to those details, we create generic crap that breezes right by folks. We isolate them. We tell them they don’t matter.
Anyway, join me in Bloganuary! Even if you don’t post daily (which I will not — too much pressure). Here’s the prompt from today, and you can follow the main site to see future prompts.
https://bloganuary.wordpress.com/2023/01/06/why-do-you-write/
cleadesigner 
4 responses to “Why I Design”
Been following the Bloguanary posts and really like the quote to share here for why you design. This is a question I haven’t stopped to think about in a little while. At least not enough to be able to articulate my ‘why’ so succinctly. This is a question that IDs generally would do well to pause and think about at least once in a while.
Thanks for sharing and prompting me to stop and think about this!
LikeLike
Thank you for replying! This kinda relates to an “assignment” I am still struggling with, which is to explain what I do for my company in a sentence or two. So hard to do that while avoiding the ID jargon like “I design engaging, effective, and efficient learning experiences for blah blah” (that’s an example I stole from the ID subreddit, actually, and I love it — but it’s not helpful for folks who don’t know what ‘learning experiences’ are).
If you’d like to share why you design, I would love to hear from you.
LikeLike
Why people design directly correlates to how people learn. Being an educator, when I design lessons I think that it is extremely important to consider how my students will learn and retain the information that I am presenting to them. I have to consider the different ways in which students learn in order to come up with a lesson in which all students, no matter their learning style, can take away a depth of knowledge from the content I am covering that day. All of my students matter in my eyes and I want them to be able to come into my classroom with a sense of comfort that they will leave (for the most part) understanding exactly what we covered that day. I want them to feel and see the importance for each of them by making sure their learning style has a place in my classroom. Instructional design in the education world is all about know who your students are as learners and what can I do as an educator to include each learning style so all students feel that sense of belonging.
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing about your educator experience, Megan! I love this. The best teachers teach because we care about helping our learners grow. I try to apply this in my instructional design work, too.
LikeLike