Promising instructional development perspectives are synthesized into a set of perspectives that might be discussed by the instructional technology profession to set some new directions for the field. An integrated set of criteria, "Configurational Inquiry Instructional Development Perspective" (CIIDP), is proposed. Configurational inquiry means a thorough detection, diagnosis, and appraisal of a variety of human or non-human systems in terms of structure, arrangement, and interrelationship to resolve the problems of the inquirer. The CIIDP had the following four features: (1) systemic thinking as its structure; (2) interdisciplinary approach as its path; (3) human-based inquiry as its heart; and (4) improving interfaces as its top task. The synthesis of these elements provides a new orientation to instructional development and offers an appealing focus. It suggests, not only what instructional development should be, but also how the inquiry into the instructional technology field should be undertaken. Two figures illustrate the discussion. (Contains 17 references.) (SLD)