LX Design in this digital era

We're fully assimilated to the digital era: we accompany our commute with a Spotify playlist, we check out our Twitter as we travel about our day, we use YouTube to explore new skills or ideas, and we stream entertainment via Prime Videos in our downtime. Many of the glorious images and design features within this digital content have been created with the user experience in mind. Whether they be amateur enthusiasts or big house production corporations anyone developing creative content has to fully engage with their users, exciting their interest and delivering on their expectations. Yet all effort might easily be wasted if just one bad element within the UX design 'turns off' your target audience. The same principles apply when it comes to LX design.

"What's LX design?" I hear you ask. Well, it's experience design in this digital era, but specifically relevant to learners. As a user, I can 'experience' digital content without being educated by it - to unwind at the end of the day, I choose Netflix's Sugar Rush baking challenge to simply watch something without stimulating my neuro-receptors. For knowledge to be transferred, those receptors need to be stimulated... something Instructional Designers and eLearning Developers have not always prioritised. The basic premise of experiential learning is ACT: PERCEIVE: ADJUST. By creating interactive content designed to contextualise possible outcomes then include opportunities to adjust their interactions, the user has a greater chance of experiencing the desired result; retaining this knowledge for future use.