Implementing learner-centred design: The interplay between usability and instructional design practices

Emerging requirements for designing interactive systems are characterized by the increased focus on users, their idiosyncratic characteristics and reactions and their changing needs (Hudlicka, 2003). The user is in the centre of the process and his/her needs drive the nature of the interface and the allocation of tasks between the user and the computer. Human-centred design (HCD) is concerned with incorporating the user's perspective into the software development process in order to achieve a usable system (ISO, 1999). The process of integrating user requirements, user interface validation, and testing into standard software design methods, is an approach which views knowledge about users and their involvement in the design process as a central concern (Preece et al., 1994). In a similar vein learner-centred design (LCD) is a development of HCD, which takes into account the special needs of learners (Brna & Cox, 1998). The increasing heterogeneity of the learners’ population, the diversification of their learning needs, the decreasing tolerance of learners’ frustration and the diversity of their learning tasks, impose that the human-centred design paradigm must be applied in e-learning design. The emerging question is how can the human-centred design techniques be specified and applied on elearning environments? What are the processes included in a learner-centred design project? The Interactive Technology & Smart Education (2006) 2:87-4100 © 2006 Troubador Publishing Ltd.