This article was published in a special journal supplement of the Research in Learning Technology journal (2013). It is the result of RCUK-funded research into the design of software to support teachers in higher education, conducted in the Learning Design Support Environment project (2008–11).

The paper presents the case for a theory-informed approach to designing representations for deployment in digital tools to support learning design, using the framework of epistemic efficacy (Peterson, 1996) as an example. This framework, which is rooted in the literature of cognitive psychology, is operationalised through dimensions of fit that attend to 1) the underlying ontology of the domain, 2) the purpose of the task, 3) the optimal facilitation of users’ cognitive processes, 4) users’ differing needs and preferences, and 5) the environment in which the representations are constructed and manipulated and the tools used for this.

The research was informed by key pedagogic theories of epistemic efficacy and by the cognitive aspects of external representation. It was developed through numerous practitioner interviews, focus groups, design workshops and usability evaluations over approximately two years.

The application of the principle of epistemic efficacy as a theoretical basis for designing and evaluating learning representations is a novel approach. The work has significant implications for the design of learning support tools in that it identifies a framework for the evaluation of design work that can aid designers in producing software that is more likely to suit the needs of practitioners. This is drawn not from the human–computer interaction literature, as is typical of such evaluative methods, but from the domain of cognitive psychology.