What Is Learning Experience Design?

What is Learning Experience Design

As mentioned, LxD is all about designing learning experiences. The courses you design for your employees need to present the following qualities:

• High functionality- you'll need to polish your course until it starts working as intended. The testing phase, later on in the course development, will yield a lot of insights into what is working and what's not. You'll need to reevaluate and rework course elements and modules to make the learning experience more effective for employees.

• Reliability- the content you provide in your eLearning course needs to be accurate and present key concepts in an easy to understand, clear manner.

• Usability- This is where thinking of UI will come in handy. Based on employee proficiency with multiple course delivery platforms, you can predict how learners will interact with the course.

• Convenience- This fourth quality is just getting adopted into learning mentalities in the workplace. Since the majority of employees are now more and more proficient with various devices (laptops, desktop computers, tablets) it stands to reason that you'll need to create a course that works well across various platforms.

• Engaging and fun- Here is where you must keep in mind that learning through play is still the most powerful method of retaining new knowledge and developing new skills. Your learning experience design should include engaging and fun elements that help learners visualize, remember, and recall newly acquired knowledge when they need it.

• Meaningful- To create meaningful experiences, you'll need to focus your learning experience design on what individual employees need, what learning goals they have set up, and how they want to use the new knowledge and skills.

Two Core Values

Human-Centered Design

This is where your knowledge of how people learn, eLearning course design, and user interaction comes in. By balancing these elements when designing a learning course, you'll provide a valuable experience that employees will breeze through. Adopting this mentality of creating human-centered designs will help you deliver a complete course that users individually identify with. You'll help employees feel like the course was created for them, raise the engagement, and boost the satisfaction they get out upon completing each module.

Goal-Oriented Design

This step requires some preparation, in that you'll need to survey each employee about their learning goals and desired learning outcomes. This is also where you would align company goals to employee goals. This will output a holistic learning experience design that combines individual and organization-wide goals with the purpose of sustaining and further developing the company's L&D culture.

Design Maps for Learner Experience Design

Once you've done your research and surveying part, the best way to start putting it all together is by creating one or more design maps. Here are four types of design maps that you can use in creating an effective learner experience:

• Holistic- this type of learner experience mapping (LEM) looks at the specific needs of the learner and what they want to get out of the learning experience.

• Learner Journey- this LEM considers how the learner will go through the learning experience. Learner journeys look at where the employee knowledge and skill level is before, during, and after the training.

• Adventure- this mapping process looks at aligning individual desired learning outcomes to each learning activity. It is customized to provide each activity as an experience in itself and measures how the learner interacts with each activity.

• Trip- using the trip design map means your design is focused on high engagement. You want the learning experience to bring real value and genuine interaction for the learner.

The Learning Experience Design Process

The following steps will help you implement a meaningful learning experience for your learners:

1. Survey

We've mentioned the importance of understanding the current knowledge and skill level of employees. Figure out what gaps they need to fill and what methods of learning delivery might best work for them.

2. Define

Synthesize the insights you receive from the surveying stage and begin constructing the learning experience.

3. Select

Relevant content is crucial. Make sure to select key concepts and explain them in simple, concise ways.

4. Expand

At this stage, you'll need to test out the learning experience you've created for your employees. Pay close attention to the feedback you receive, since this will determine the changes you might need to implement.

5. Deliver

Ideally, the course would be very close to completed by this stage. You'll need to continue reviewing learner feedback.

6. Iterate

Creating a complete, fun, and engaging learning experience is a never-ending endeavor. At the end of each course, you'll need to reevaluate the content, interactions, and activities based on feedback from learners. You'll then need to implement these changes so that the next set of learners receives an updated learning experience.

Conclusion

So, what is learning experience design? Simply put, LxD is all about the process of delivering meaningful, pleasurable, and convenient learning experiences. It's about placing the employee at the center of this learning experience and empowering them to retain, recall, and relate the newly gained knowledge to others. Read more about designing eLearning courses on our blog and get in touch if you have any questions or comments. Start learning, designing, and creating unforgettable learning experiences for your employees!