Partial profile · Book Profile — full narrative profile planned
(title unknown)
A practical, cognitively grounded guide to designing learning experiences that close the real gaps—knowledge, skills, motivation, and environment—so learners can actually do more, not just know more.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Design For How People Learn reframes instructional design as the art of helping learners travel from where they are to where they need to be. Julie Dirksen argues that great learning is less about content and more about how content is taught: understanding your learners, defining the true gap (knowledge, skill, motivation, environment, or communication), and using what we know about memory, attention, and behavior to bridge it. Blending accessible cognitive science (working memory limits, the 'closet' model of long-term memory, the rider-and-elephant metaphor for attention and emotion) with hands-on strategies (chunking, storytelling, scaffolding, spaced practice, show-don't-tell, and putting knowledge in the environment), the book equips designers, teachers, and trainers to create experiences that stick, transfer to the real world, and change behavior. Witty, illustrated, and immediately applicable, it teaches you to make learners feel capable—the surest sign you've won as a designer.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- An instructional designer, teacher, or trainer who wants to create learning experiences that genuinely change what learners can do.
- The problem
- Learning experiences (classes, e-learning, manuals) fail to transfer—learners forget the content or can't apply it in the real world. The designer feels frustrated and uncertain, suspecting their well-intentioned content isn't working but not knowing why.
- The plan
- Identify the real gap between where learners are and where they need to be.
- Understand who your learners are—their motivations, skill level, and context.
- Set clear, observable, real-world learning goals.
- Design for memory and attention using context, chunking, storytelling, and emotional engagement.
- Build skills through spaced practice and frequent, varied feedback.
- The payoff
- Learners emerge with new or improved capabilities they can use in the real world. · Designs engage the elephant, stick in memory, and transfer across contexts. · Learners feel capable and confident—'like they invented calculus.'
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