Experience design is an emergent area rooted in established disciplines, blending knowledge and integrating approaches to craft a creative profession with endless possibilities. Then why are there so few undergraduate programs teaching it? Neil Lundberg and Mat Duerden of Brigham Young University stop by the ExD studios to talk about how they started their program in Experience Design and Management, how they create experiential learning opportunities for students, and the path forward to teaching more experience design professionals.
We live in an experience economy, where experience channels abound in business. Whether customer, user, patient, employee, or something else, we are facing expanded opportunities to create and design experiences. Given this emergent reality, why are not more colleges and universities developing programs in experience design?
To explore this question, Neil Lundberg and Mat Duerden visit the Experience by Design studios to talk about how their program in Experience Design and Management started at the Marriott School of Management, located at Brigham Young University.
We discuss the origins of the program in transformative leisure experiences, and how whitewater rafting trips helped to establish a foundation in experience design. We also examine what kinds of content should be part of a program in experience design, and what skills and perspectives do students absolutely need to know. Finally, we look toward future growth of experience design programs, and the need expressed by employers to hire graduates of these programs.