Our goal in this article is to set out some important elements of a useful theory of "design for learning." We aim to help understand what it means to design something, or some assemblage of things, to help other people learn. In offering what we believe to be a useful framework for thinking about design for learning, we address a number of key issues, including: how it is that something designed by one person can help other people learn; what kinds of things can be designed; how these things might also need to support the work of people (like teachers) whose job it is to support other peoples' learning; how learning usually has multiple layers and multiple goals--each of which may place different requirements on design--and how people who are learning can also be expected to modify that which has been designed.