Implementing learner-centred design: The interplay between usability and instructional design practices 1. INTRODUCTION Emerging requirements for designing interactive systems are characterized by the increased focus on users, their idiosyncratic characteristics and reac- tions 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 allo- cation of tasks between the user and the computer. Human-centred design (HCD) is concerned with incorporating the user's perspective into the soft- ware development process in order to achieve a usable system (ISO, 1999). The process of integrat- ing 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 learn- er-centred design (LCD) is a development of HCD, which takes into account the special needs of learn- ers (Brna & Cox, 1998). The increasing heterogene- ity of the learners’ population, the diversification of their learning needs, the decreasing tolerance of learners’ frustration and the diversity of their learn- ing 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 e- learning 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. Panagiotis Zaharias and Angeleiki Poulymenakou Department of Management Science & Technology, Athens University of Economics and Business, 76, Patission str., Athens 104 34, Greece Email: pz@aueb.gr; akp@aueb.gr New requirements for the design of interactive systems call for a human-centred approach. Learner-centred design has been considered as the equivalent of human (or user) centred design as it applies to the design and development of e- learning systems and applications. E-Learning is gaining momentum and the respective interest in design methods and practices for such systems is continuously increasing. Nevertheless it is not clear how learner-centred design can be implemented in practice; questions, such as what are the processes included in learner-centred design, what kind of activities should take place, how can existing human-centred design methodologies be combined with instructional design methods and techniques, remain unanswered. This paper stresses the need for an effective integration between usability – the ultimate goal for every human-centred design effort – and instructional design concepts, techniques and practices. It presents a case study where authors’ activities to design a web-based training curriculum are described. Problems and challenges of applying human-centred design and instructional design methods and techniques are dis- cussed along with future research dimensions. Keywords: Learner-centred design, user and organizational requirements, human-centred design, usability, instruction- al design, evaluation VOL 3 NO 2 MAY 2006 87