October 2019

Learning Experience Design

with Phylise Banner

Looking for ways to innovate your instructional design approaches? Ready to design, develop, deliver, and manage more learner-focused training and teaching solutions?

Join us as we explore the emerging field of Learning Experience Design (LX) – a holistic approach to designing, developing, and delivering learner-focused solutions. LX design weaves together methods and approaches from instructional design, user experience design, visual design, service design, and Design Thinking.

This curated series will showcase innovations in the learning space, and share tools and templates that you can use to shape any design practice.

October Roundtable includes the following curated content, in addition to resources and an interactive forum for engagement on the topic.

Week 1: Live Webinar: Learning Experience Design: The Perfect Blend
Week 2: Article: A Practical Approach to Learning Experience Design
Week 3: Panel Discussion with Michele Israel, Kevin Thorn, and Marie-Pierre Huguet, PhD
Week 4: LX Design Toolkit

Looking for ways to innovate your instructional design approaches? Ready to design, develop, deliver, and manage more learner-focused training and teaching solutions?

Join us as we explore the emerging field of Learning Experience Design (LX) – a holistic approach to designing, developing, and delivering learner-focused solutions. LX design weaves together methods and approaches from instructional design, user experience design, visual design, service design, and Design Thinking.

This curated series will showcase innovations in the learning space, and share tools and templates that you can use to shape any design practice.

Weekly Content

STC Roundtable Webinar: Learning Experience Design: The Perfect Blend

As technical communicators, we often find ourselves creating content and experiences where our users are learning something. We need to consider each of these knowledge-based interactions as a learning experience.

In this webinar we will delve into the emerging field of Learning Experience (LX) Design, and embrace a human-centered approach to creating authentic knowledge-based interactions.

Join us to learn how (and why) to apply:

  • Design Thinking approaches to shape your LX design practice;
  • UX design strategies to empathize with your learners;
  • Service design methods to compose more relevant learner journeys; and
  • Visual design guidelines to influence your learning experiences.

Article: A Practical Approach to Learning Experience Design

This article explores effective practices in Learning Experience (LX) Design, along with supporting theories and research. Methods and approaches are highlighted along with accompanying tools that can be used in the LX design process.

Panel Discussion: The Evolving Role of the Learning Experience (LX) Designer

Panelists:

Marie-Pierre Huguet, PhD, Instructional Design Thought Leader

Michele Israel, Writer, LX Designer

Kevin Thorn, Chief NuggetHead

In this panel discussion, we will explore the insights and expertise of three very different learning experience design professionals. We will explore the field from both theoretical and practical perspectives, and dive deeper into what it takes to transform a knowledge exchange into a learning experience. Core to our practice is keeping our learners in mind as we design, develop, and deliver learning experiences — yet we each take a different approach to keeping true to that core. We encourage participants to ask additional questions of the guest panelists.

LX Design Toolkit

A Learning Experience (LX) Design sprint is a fast-paced group exercise designed to promote creative thinking and rapid prototyping (low-fidelity). With a focus on empathizing with our learners, design sprints empower teams to collaborate on finding novel solutions to design challenges.

Included in the Roundtable this month, Phylise has shared materials you can use to facilitate your own LX Design Sprint. Use these resources to explore your own practice, or to host an LX Design Sprint with a group of participants. Feel free to modify these files to suit your specific environment.

 

Resources

Learning Experience Design

  • Learning Experience Design

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/learning-experience-design-the-most-valuable-lessons

This author posits that this article (the one that you will read), is part of a learning experience. Learning experiences aren’t a matter of classroom delivery – they are any interaction with a user, customer, or individual in which the person is going to learn something.

  • Elements of Learning Experience Design

http://boxesandarrows.com/elements-of-learning-experience-design/

Designing adult learning experiences that take place either online or in a classroom has always traditionally been about defining a curriculum. That process of curriculum creation is most commonly called instructional design. But, in the same way that user experience design requires much more than deciding what content should go on a website, true learning experience design requires much more than curriculum.

Learner Motivation

  • The Reiss Motivation Profile

https://www.rmp-swiss.ch/en/reiss-motivation-profile/#grundlagen

The Reiss Motivation is used as a tool to determine a person’s fundamental goals and values. In his research, Reiss reduced human psychological motivators down to 16 basic desires. We can explore these motivators to determine what might drive our learners to succeed.

  • It’s the Journey, Not the Destination: How Metaphor Drives Growth After Goal Attainment

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpspa0000164

Note that this requires academic library access. I do not recommend paying for the PDF if you do not have access. This article examines 6 studies involving over 1,600 people across cultures and samples, and demonstrates that construing an achieved goal as a journey one has completed led to a greater likelihood of people continuing behaviors aligned with this attained goal.

Persona Development

  • Personas: The Foundation of a Great User Experience

http://uxmag.com/articles/personas-the-foundation-of-a-great-user-experience

This primer on personas explains how businesses can get the most from developing and employing them. Consider the learner as you explore this resource and ideate on how you might take these principles over to the LX design space.

  • Use Learner Persona Templates to Tailor Your Development Strategy

https://blog.gloo.us/learner-persona-tailor-learning-development-strategy

The folks at Gloo share their perspectives on how you can use custom learner personas to tailor your learning and development strategy. I highly recommend that you download their free template and modify it to suit your needs.

  • 10 Tips to Better Learner Personas

https://blog.gloo.us/improve-learner-persona-development

Another offering from the Gloo folks, this post shares tips on how to create accurate learner personas. As always, keep in mind the situation and environment that you are designing for – and keep the focus on YOUR learners.

UX Design

  • Nielsen Norman Group

https://www.nngroup.com/

A leader in the user experience field, the Neilson Norman Group conducts groundbreaking research, trains and certifies UX practitioners, and provides UX consulting to clients. This is one of my go-to resources!

  • UIE

https://www.uie.com/

Resources and ideas for integrating UX strategies into your work. Explore the articles and podcasts for insight and practical examples.

Design Thinking

  • Design Thinking

https://designthinking.ideo.com/

IDEO introduces design thinking, how it came to be, how it is being used, and steps and tools for mastering it.

  • Design Thinking Resources from IDEO

https://www.ideou.com/pages/design-thinking-resources

The best resources from IDEO U's online design thinking courses: Insights for Innovation, From Ideas to Action and Storytelling for Influence.

  • Design Thinking Resources from the d.school at Stanford

https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources

The folks at the d.School curated a collection of resources from their classes and workshops for you to explore.

Service Design

  • The Principles of Service Design Thinking – Building Better Services

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/the-principles-of-service-design-thinking-building-better-services

This article shares the general principles of service design, drawn from the design ethos of Design4Services, the organization that is committed to developing service design and promoting business transformation.

  • This is Service Design Thinking

http://thisisservicedesignthinking.com/

This website is built around the book, This is Service Design Thinking. The book explains the service design approach and the companion site offers additional insight into the theory and practice of service design.

  • #TISDD METHOD LIBRARY

https://www.thisisservicedesigndoing.com/methods

This library shares 54 hands-on descriptions that help you apply the key methods used in service design. These methods include instructions, guidelines, and-tips-and tricks for activities within research, ideation, prototyping, and facilitation.

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Curator Bio:

Phylise Banner

Phylise Banner is a learning experience designer with over 25 years of vision, action, and leadership experience in transformational learning solutions. A pioneer in the learning experience design space, she regularly experiments with emerging methodologies and technologies in order to shape vibrant and engaged communities of practice.

She is a Certified Learning Environment Architect, Adobe Education Leader, STC Fellow, performance storyteller, avid angler, aviation enthusiast, and currently training to be a private pilot. She is also the proud owner of a 1967 Amphicar.