Instructional design is like making a recipe for learning. It is the process of figuring out what you want someone to learn, like baking a cake or solving a math problem, and then figuring out the best way to teach it. It includes things like deciding what materials to use and in what order, setting up tests to measure how much someone has learned, and figuring out what kind of feedback to give when someone gets an answer wrong. Instructional design helps ensure that people learn all the skills they need, in the most effective way possible.