Hidden rules of instructional design

Have you ever encountered the unwritten rules of instructional design?

It’s hard to imagine there’s anything about instructional design left unwritten in 2024, I know 😀

But anyway, there are two things that have boggled my mind for quite some time, and I wish I had understood them earlier:

📍 For instructional designers, the term “design” doesn’t actually mean “design” (unless it does). For example, designing learning content is a phase that is followed by the development phase, but design is also a part of the development phase. However, that’s a different design than the one mentioned previously.😵‍

📍 Instructional designers and e-learning designers are two completely different roles. Yet, many instructional designers only do e-learning design, and many e-learning designers call themselves instructional designers.😖

Have you encountered any other L&D-specific rules during your work that you wish you had learned earlier?