Experience Design

It is essential to think about education online as comprehensively as possible. Experience design offers designers of online courses a comprehensive model informed by research and development in a number of areas that can provide a foundation for the effective design of online experiences that are functional and purposeful—and also engaging, compelling, memorable, and enjoyable. Experience design is an ancient practice, going back to the earliest human impulse to develop rituals, ceremonies, drama, and even architecture. But the design of experiences has become much more pervasive during the twentieth century. Media has played a central role, including radio, television, multimedia, and virtual reality. But experience design is also informed by new ideas in economics, especially Pine and Gilmore’s notion of the emerging experience economy. And it draws upon ideas from artificial intelligence, the psychology of optimal experiences, sociology, and other areas, including electronic commerce, persuasive, human–computer interface design, drama, and digital storytelling. This article discusses key concepts and theories from all of these areas and explains how they can be adapted to the design of online learning experiences. 59 EXPERIENCE DESIGN IT IS ESSENTIAL TO THINK ABOUT EDUCATION in the realm of cyberspace as comprehensively as possible. In addition to designing actual courses online, universities need to design effective interfaces for administrative interactions and transactions such as registering for courses and ordering textbooks as well as lifelong learning experiences and online communities for alumni. It is essential for universities to think about the design of all the online experiences they offer to constituencies such as students, alumni, prospective students, and faculty and staff. Only with this kind of global design vision will it be possible to successfully extend the immense experience value that universities offer at their real world campuses (“the college experience”) to their cyberspace campuses. Electronic commerce expert Seybold1 emphasizes the importance of owning the customer’s (or student’s) total experience. This is the key—attention to design details at all levels within the context of the audience’s experience of the content and design features contained within a web-based course or a uiversity website overall. This goal of total ownership can only be achieved through an understanding and practice of experience design. Experience design, a comprehensive model informed by research and development in a number of areas, can provide a foundation for the effective design of online experiences within the cyber campus of the university. The goal of experience design is to orchestrate experiences that are not only functional and purMcLellan-Wyatt Digital, Saratoga Springs, New York. poseful, but also engaging, compelling, memorable, and enjoyable. Marshall McLuhan (1967) once observed that “when information is brushed against information, the results are startling and effective.” The emerging field of experience design is brushing together ideas from a wide array of disciplines with exciting results, including economics, electronic commerce, psychology, sociology, communications, artifical intelligence, and other specialty areas in computer science such as virtual reality and persuasive technologies, as well as theater and entertainment. Design, research, and theory-building in several diverse fields have found a common goal in the quest to design experiences that serve some purpose—commerce, education, entertainment—in a compelling and memorable way. Many well-tested design ideas from outside of education, from a wide range of fields and applications, offer great potential for the design of online classes and university campuses in cyberspace. Experience design is really an ancient practice; rituals, ceremonies, drama, and even architecture (e.g., medieval cathedrals) are designed to provide certain kinds of experience. But the design of experiences has become much more pervasive during the twentieth century. Media has played a central role, first with the emergence of film and radio and, more recently, with electronic media such as multimedia, virtual reality, and the Internet. Different media showcase different types of experiences, but all share in the central importance of the experiences they evoke and, concommitantly, the importance of effective design. One important theory underpinning experience design comes from economics. Pine and Gilmore3 theorize that we have moved from a service economy to an experience economy. According to these analysts, the experience component of the economy is growing rapidly, outstripping the service sector, just as the service economy outgrew the industrial economy previously. The pioneer in this transition to an experience economy is Walt Disney. Disneyland and Disney World as well as all the Disney movies embody this model of experiences whose economic value is based upon enjoyment and memorability rather than our traditional concept of service. And Las Vegas is at the leading edge of the experience economy. Pine and Gilmore’s model highlights the importance of experience design and the need for effective design guidelines: Experiences are the basis for future economic growth within this new and rapidly expanding sector of the economy—a sector that includes education. The contrast between service and experience is subtle but important. As Pine and Gilmore explain, When a person buys a service, he purchases a set of intangible activities carried out on his behalf. But when he buys an experience, he pays to spend time enjoying a series of memorable events that a company stages—as in a theatrical play—to engage him in a personal