Learning Experience Designer: 5 of the Best Skills to Have

What is Learning Experience Design?

Before we can tell you what a learning experience designer is, we probably need to define what is meant by Learning Experience Design (LXD) Design. LXD “is a process of creating learning experiences that enable the learner to achieve the desired learning outcome in a human-centered and goal-oriented way” (www.lxd.org)

Often times I see individuals skimping the design phase of a course or curriculum. And to no fault of their own, it comes down to time, talent, and other resource constraints. Even when learning outcomes are clear, I see training developers make one task into one lesson, and then continue that process to create a course. It generally lacks a holistic structure that keeps the learner at the center of the design and more importantly, a focus on what they’ll be able to do back on the job.

It’s important to move away from this type of practice which typically falls under the “sage on the stage” content development and move towards a holistic learning experience or “guide on the side” structure. Where learners are central to the experience, and the focus is on their retention and application of the content on the job.

So, how do we prepare our training developers to move towards holistic, learner centric designs? We upskill their current knowledge and skills to those of learning experience designers.

Here are 5 key knowledge and skills to develop quality learning experiences:

1. A foundation in Learning Science

Knowing the current research application and implications in neuroscience, linguistics, cognitive science, and educational psychology is crucial because these fields let us know what humans are capable of learning and how to better quantify and standardize learning data. These theories and methods can be coupled with organization-specific data to expedite the building of expertise.

A solid foundation in learning science helps an LX Designer incorporate the best strategies to maximize everyone’s chance of learning for both near and far transfer.

2. A UX Design Skill Set

User experience (UX) Design is a common term in the tech and customer service industries. If you’ve ever been frustrated on how to navigate inside an online course or find buttons to make the page go forward then you are a victim of poor UX! UX is kind of like Tom from Office Space…the one who deals with the customer, so the engineer doesn’t have to! Its goal is to ensure learners attain the desired outcomes with as little struggle and as much enjoyment as possible.

In the late 1990’s Don Norman, a cognitive scientist and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group Design Consultancy, and author was credited with inventing the term with the statement:

LX designers with UX design skills will have the ability to:

Identify key UX design principles that form the foundation of an effective learning experience
Design experiences for all learners by drawing from cognitive processes
Create and evaluate prototypes
Analyze learner input and feedback using numbers and statistics

Note: One of the best books for all learning professionals is “The Design of Everyday Things, Revised and Expanded Edition” by Don Norman.

3. The Ability to Effectively Use Instructional Media and Message Design

Although PowerPoint is a tool readily available to many of us, death by PowerPoint is not an effective tool for ensuring leaners have an engaging learning experience that leads to training transfer. PowerPoint was not intended to put as many bullets and large amounts of text and resize it to an 8pt. font. Remember the good old transparencies? You could write on them in real time, display worksheets or create diagrams to demonstrate, key concepts? Now you can use whiteboards, or simply use an easel with large post-it paper, in addition to PowerPoint, to present your content. Anytime you diagram or show examples through these mediums, you’ve now created a whole new learning experience.

LX designers have the expertise to utilize what an organization has in order to balance cognitive load, improve learner’s retention of content, and enhance learner engagement.

Rune Pettersson, Ph.D., appointed Professor of Information Design at Mälardalen University in Eskilstuna, said “Message design is an interdisciplinary area of knowledge. Good design is simple, bold, and direct. It provides rational, functional aesthetics, as well as effective and efficient layouts for all media. A group of design principles all deal with the design of messages. The main component in message design are words, visuals, and forms. These main components may be used in many different ways to design, produce, transmit, and interpret messages.”

You might think about it this way: If a facilitator is showing a process, diagram, or video that is not related to the learners experiences and disconnected from what the learner needs to focus on, it’s a recipe for disengagement and frustration. The amount, type, context, and relevancy of both the media and the message must be tightly knitted and deliberately planted to make a truly effective learning experience.

When selecting instructional media and message design, take the following into consideration:

Media Selection – communication channels (audio, video, etc), characteristics of the media itself, learning outcomes, learner attributes, and the science of teaching and learning
Compliance Gaining Strategies – tactics such as rewarding activities and expertise keep your learner engaged
Text Design – break up the message content into digestible pieces
Micro Lessons – manageable chunks of content that are interleaved to build expertise through repetition

4. Critical AND Creative Thinking Processes

Critical thinking is the process of analyzing information and questioning that information to make sound judgements. Creative thinking is the creation of something new and often novel to solve problems or invent innovate ways of doing business. LX designers utilize design thinking practices which are usually a mix of both critical and creative thinking.

Design thinking models and tools are key to elevating and stretching the art of the possible to complex and often unstructured problems. You first must start with understanding your own thinking and how you can get in your own way and block the creative thinking process. Creative thinking is less about judgement and more about idea generating and elaborating to find those content nuggets you just might be missing. Like any new skill, we must practice it in order to become a habit. And once it does, you can use this skill to create an effective experience for your learners.

A quality LX Designer asks themselves and others powerful questions like:

5. Narrative Development Ability

You probably guessed it, narrative skills are the ability to tell a good story and the knowledge of how a story works. An LX Designer should be able to capture the learners attention with the power of a great story.

Do all stories have a beginning, middle, and end? Yes, if it will help achieve your learning objective. But engaging stories don’t have to be long and they don’t just use words. For example, narrative tools can be used in exam questions and we all know the phrase “a picture says a thousand words”.

How is narrative development used in learning experience design?

Conclusion

As a learning community we must continue to ask tough questions on the research areas in the learning atmosphere move from processes that no longer serve our needs as designers and those of our learners, become more adaptable to ambiguous environments and keep pushing the boundaries on creativity.

These are not really that new of concepts. Some are grounded in very reliable research and practice. It’s time we set our intentions to building the holistic learning environment by becoming learning experience designers. If you or your organization need help in upskilling your training and development workforce, check at our 1700 Series Academy. With deliberate practice, I think we’ll get there as a community!