You've spent weeks crafting the perfect course, agonising over the wording, tweaking the interactions, hunting down the perfect images, and celebrating when it’s ready for publishing.
But your learners? They've opened it because a reminder email told them to. They're wondering how long it'll take, whether they can get back to their actual job afterwards, and what's for lunch. Oof!
Sounds brutal, right? But here's the thing - your learners don't have to care about your course. They need to care about what it can do for them.
As designers, it's easy to get caught up in the learning we've poured our hearts into, but if we want people to learn something useful and actually apply it, we need to stop looking at things from our side of the screen.
Let’s explore what the learner needs …
Accept that your course isn't the most
important thing in a learner’s day.
You've been living and breathing this project for weeks or months. You've researched the topic, honed the finer details, and dreamt about it at least once. Your learner hasn't.
For them, your course is another distraction from their overflowing inbox, back-to-back meetings, looming deadlines, and 1,067 other things they're trying to get done before they clock off. And that's okay! They have a job to do, and completing your course is just another item on their to-do list.
So, what can we do? The trick is to design for their reality, not yours. What do they already know? What pressures are they under? What do they need to do differently? And how can your learning help them do it?
Start with the learner's world, rather than the content. Your course might be brilliant, but that means little if it doesn't fit the person using it.
Make it feel like their world.
Imagine taking a course about handling workplace conflict, only to find every fictional scenario involves a manager called John, a colleague called Jane, and a bog standard AI-generated workplace.
Okay, perhaps that's a little dramatic, but we've all seen learning that feels so generic it could apply to absolutely anyone. People engage when they recognise their own world.
So, what can we do? Use the language they actually use. Build scenarios around situations they genuinely encounter. Give them decisions they may have to make for real.
This doesn't mean every course needs an elaborate narrative or huge cast of characters. It means making the content feel familiar enough that learners can see how it connects to their working lives.
The less mental gymnastics needed to translate your content into something useful, the better - don't just tell learners what good practice looks like; show them what it looks like in their world.
Respect the attention they've given you.
Your learners' time is valuable - yes, even when the course is mandatory. Just because someone has to complete their training doesn't mean they owe you 45 minutes of their undivided attention. Be ruthless!
So, what can we do? Cut the waffle and repetition, make navigation intuitive, give learners control where it makes sense, and let them spend their time on the things they actually need to learn. If five minutes of focused microlearning can do the job, why stretch it to 45?
More content doesn't always mean more learning. Sometimes it means opening another browser tab to see what else is going on in the world.
Of course, some subjects need more time and depth than others. The goal isn't to make every course as short as possible, it's to make every minute count. Respecting learners' time isn't cutting corners - it's good design.
Don't just get them through it - give them a tasty takeaway.
That course? Completed it, mate. A nice, satisfying green box on the LMS. All done, right? Er, not necessarily.
Completion tells us someone reached the end, not whether the message landed or if they'll do anything differently. The real test is what happens after they close the course. Can they apply what they've learned? Do they feel more confident making a decision? Have they picked up any actions they can put into practice straight away?
So, what can we do? Give learners something they can actually use. That might be a memorable takeaway, a checklist they can refer back to, or a clear next step.
Here's a little test: If your learner closed the course right now, what could they actually go and do differently? If the answer is "I'm not sure", it might be time to rethink that final activity!
Remember that learning doesn't have to end when the course does. Workplace conversations, manager support, job aids, and opportunities to practise can all help turn knowledge into action.
The aim isn't to just get someone to the final screen. It's to help them take something useful into the real world.
So, what does this mean for designers?
We don't need learners to fall in love with our courses. We need to make the learning worth their time. So, next time you're reviewing something you've built, ask yourself:
- Is this genuinely useful?
- Can learners see why it matters?
- Does it reflect their world?
- And will they leave knowing what to do differently?
Our job isn't to demand learners' attention. It's to earn it.
Your learners might never get excited about their next compliance course or tell their friends about your beautiful branching scenario over dinner. But if they leave knowing something useful, feeling more confident, or ready to do something differently? Now that's a job well done.