I’ve been thinking a lot about clarity in course design. Most instructional designers don’t have the opportunity to sit in the room with learners, observe confusion in real time, or immediately adjust when something isn’t landing.
That means our content has to do that work for us. It has to anticipate confusion — and remove it before it becomes a barrier.
Designing Without Immediate Feedback
In many cases, we:
- Build courses asynchronously
- Deliver content at scale
- Release learning experiences without live facilitation
When learners encounter uncertainty, there isn’t always someone available to clarify instructions. So the question becomes: have we made expectations unmistakably clear?
Clarity Is More Than Simple Language
Clarity in instructional design includes:
- Clear, direct wording
- Logical sequencing of steps
- Explicit instructions on what to do next
- Transparent expectations for performance
- Defined success criteria
If learners have to guess what is being asked of them, cognitive energy shifts away from learning and toward interpretation. That’s friction we can prevent.
Anticipating Confusion
One of the habits I’ve developed in my design process is asking:
- What might someone misinterpret here?
- What prior knowledge am I assuming?
- Is this instruction specific enough to act on immediately?
- Would someone unfamiliar with the topic understand this wording?
Sometimes a small change — rewriting a vague sentence, adding a step number, clarifying an outcome — significantly improves the learner experience. A learning experience is impactful when instructions, the layout and the ultimate goals are clear. And isn’t that the point?
