There is some but relatively little overlap between the cultures of educational research and educational design, a state of affairs that is to the detriment of both fields. In this article I address some of the reasons this is the case, and then make a plausibility argument for a more substantial rapprochement between the two fields. I do so first by analogy, suggesting that research on the “professional vision” of designers would be of profit to practitioners in both fields. I then provide a preliminary example of what such work might reveal, and propose the systematic pursuit of such ideas.