Getting Started
Having spent the last few years studying instructional design (ID) and applying it to my daily working life as a professor of communication, the connections between the ID process and the user experience process were hard to ignore. As with any discipline or profession, there are multiple models to employ. Depending upon the population or desired outcome, a designer could use Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction, Merrill’s 5 Principles of Instruction, Kemp’s Model of Design, or SAM. However, the ADDIE model is the most common and lines up rather neatly with the steps in the various case studies we reviewed.
The ADDIE Model
Analysis
In this step, the ID attempts to discern the needs of the learner in tandem with the learning goals. This is the “so what” part of the design process. Many choices can be made but in the analysis stage, we are figuring out if they should be done. Why? Because we may not need another version of a training module or new app to order dinner tonight. Each of the different cases provided an individual “in” to the start of the process with either personal experiences (Whiskers), problem definition (Haven), or benchmarking (book study). They all provided a rationale as well as their ultimate goals for the project.
In ID, we conduct a needs assessment. There are several different types we can employ:
- Performance (gap) – Is there a skill or knowledge deficiency in the learning population?
- Feasibility – Would the cost of a new design or training be worth the investment?
- Needs versus wants – Is there an actual business/learning need? Is the change just new and shiny?
- Goal – What behavioral changes do you wish to affect?
- Job/task – What is the correct way to complete this action? How can we break it into its most basic parts?
- Target population – What is our audience? Are there other audiences that might potentially benefit from the intervention/innovation?
- Contextual – Are there influences in the environment (outside of training and design) that have an impact on our desired outcomes?
Design & Development
Although Design and Development get their spot on the ADDIE wheel, it can be very difficult to differentiate the ending of the Design stage and the beginning of the Development one. In Design, we are outlining the process of how the material should be learned while in Development we are actually authoring and producing the new deliverables. This part of the process connects directly to the storyboarding and mood design of the user experience process.
Implementation
When we finally get to Implementation, we get to go live and test it out with our populations. Like usability testing, we are in the trenches attempting to find out if all of our hard work and well-crafted design has been worth it….However, as with all design processes, we need to remember that not everything is going to work as we planned and those “failures” are just more data to help make the next iteration that much better. Therefore, it is generally worth it.
Evaluation
In the Evaluation stage, we need to measure effectiveness and efficiency. Although it is listed at the end, this can happen throughout the design process especially if we are conducting a formative assessment rather than a summative one. The reflective considerations of the designers provided in their case studies have a lot of similarities to contemplative formative assessment. Stepping back and taking in the design process and outputs as a whole provides insight into our design process as well as what potential next steps need to happen.
Another Case Study to Consider
I am very interested in how we can better integrate user experience design into higher education. As Dr. Pullman mentioned in his first lecture, we do have student-centered pedagogy. As online learning has expanded, however, I think there needs to be more user design experience involved in the process. Learning has moved well beyond the barriers of traditional educational organizations. Learning can be mobile, ubiquitous, and required by employers. We can study independently on LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Udemy, and other platforms. Therefore, I attempted to find an education-forward case study. The one I found was Learn2Earn.