Understanding the complexity of Learning Experience Design

Learning experience design (LXD) seems to have exploded in popularity recently (just check indeed.com for LXD job postings). Discussions about LXD abound on social media and on educational technology blogs. As a group of scholars who have been engaged in LXD for some time now, we are interested in better understanding just what exactly LXD is and how learning designers go about engaging in LXD practice. In general, we view LXD as the practice of translating activities for learners into experiences that empower and enable them to reach their learning goals in ways that are pleasing and enjoyable. To do this, LX designers often borrow from the practice of user experience design (UXD).

Because LXD is relatively new, it is not well established. We have observed that this has led to some confusion about what LXD actually is and how it differs from related areas of design, such as instructional design (ID) and UXD. In this blog entry, we hope to clear up some of this confusion by providing our own insights on LXD, and to present some of the more general characteristics of LXD that can help provide some clarity around the topic. Specifically, we consider these three questions:

1. Is LXD just the new term for instructional design?
2. Is LXD just UX for e-learning?
3. What are some universal characteristics of LXD?