Steven Bell (who writes often and well on the topic of usability and customer experience over at the Designing Better Libraries blog) recently turned me on to an thought-provoking video of Jesse James Garrett discussing his ideas on User Experience at the Adaptive Path UX Week 2009 Conference. (Jump to the bottom of this post to see the video)
Garrett’s ideas are simple to understand and elegantly presented. Since watching the video, I find myself increasingly seeing the world through UX (user experience) eyes. It’s occurred to me that Garrett’s ideas on user experience also lay out a simple roadmap for engaging learners. In fact, many teachers and trainers probably already use UX principles effectively, whether they do so consciously or not.
FOUR WAYS TO ENGAGE LEARNERS
Garrett suggests that there are four primary ways that we can engage users:
- Perception (Senses): Engaging through sight, sound, smell, etc.
- Action (body/kinesthetic): Engaging through movement and physical action.
- Cognition (mind): Engaging through thought, reflection, logic, imagination.
- Emotion (heart): Engaging through emotion, feelings.
Four Ways to Engage Learners
You’ll notice that two types of engagement (perception/action) involve direct engagement with the external world, while the other two types (cognition/emotion) are internal engagements.
Reflecting on my own experiences I realized that the most successful, effective trainings I’ve been involved with, as both a learner and a trainer, offered a balanced engagement in all four areas.
I think there is an opportunity for trainers and teachers to bring their lessons to the next level by consciously designing learning experiences (LX) that engage learners in all four areas. In other words, I believe that Good UX=Good LX.
USER EXPERIENCE: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
One example of what it looks like when it all comes together (i.e. when people are engaged, internally through emotion and cognition, as externally through their actions, and perceptions) is illustrated beautifully in this video, The Fun Theory in which researchers replace regular stairs with “piano key” stairs. What do you think happens? Click play to find out…
So how were the people in this video being engaged? I observed:
- Perception (sound, music, visual stimulation of piano key stairs)
- Action (jumping, stepping, climbing)
- Cognition (curiosity, decision-making; choosing between stairs/escalator; processing the cause/effect of walking on the stairs)
- Emotion (fun, fun, fun! Joy of the unexpected. Joy of seeing others having fun. Sense of community, and sharing in a novel experience.)
Did you observe any other types of engagement?
Thinking about your own experiences, can you recall ways in which you’ve successfully engaged your learners or been engaged as a learner? Share your suggestions and experiences in the comments section. And if you find these concepts useful in designing future learning experiences please drop a line and let us know!
(see the complete Garrett video on user experience–well worth a watch–below)
Jesse James Garrett on The State of User Experience, UX Week 2009
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Thanks for this great post Peter! I’m always engaged by a good story when I attend training sessions. This is one area where I think libraries are ahead of the curve of other organizations. Most of our staff are already skilled storytellers in some capacity and that really helps create a great experience for our learners.
Lori, great point about the power of stories. Good ones certainly engage us on the level of perception (sound, visual–including gesture and supporting images), cognition (surprise, logical construction), and emotion (hope, fear, anger, humor). And I suppose a REALLY good story engages us physically too by keeping us on the edge of our seat.
Perhaps it’s not by accident that Copyblogger’s post on How to Write a Story ends with the suggestions of a happy ending and a…wait for it…”call to action”.
Well done Peter. I really like how you applied what JJG had to say about UX to the learning experience. For engaging learners I think it always comes back to giving them authentic practice – give them something to do that moves them farther along the learning curve. I think it combines all four components of the learning experience, and the learners feel like they are actually accomplishing something productive.
Love this post and I loved seeing that video again. The Fun Theory site has a lot of other entertaining examples. Doing mostly technology training, I find when the class lets out a lot of oooohs and aaaahs those are the moments that stick with them. I try to take note of what I did in those moments so I can replicate them. Sometimes it’s not me but the software itself. One trick I love to use is showing the long hard way first and then the quick, make my life easier way – this seems to get things to stick!
Stephanie you bring up a really good point about facilitator self-assessment. It’s always a good idea after every session whether it be face-to-face or online to ask yourself what worked well, and what would you do different next time. It’s amazing how many trainer-teachers have no real training themselves in adult education. Self-assessment is a great tool to improve one’s skills whether a newbie trainer or an experienced trainer.
Self-assessment is an amazing tool. In the Air Force, we were taught to do public speaking by having our presentations videotaped. There are few things more uncomfortable than watching yourself speak… and yet few things more useful to your progress as a speaker. The same goes for instruction (which is a performance art in most cases).
In the manner of what I do to engage students, I tend to hop around a lot in the classroom, waving arms, telling stories, building a narrative, asking questions, etc. “What do you think is happening here?” Also, my writing workshops are full-metal-jacket engagement that leaves us all depleted but happy. But in the last couple years the most important thing I have done to engage students is to put them at ease about their personal learning workflows. I begin classes by saying that if they need to surf/check email/text during the class, that’s ok, and I hope they participate in class but I understand they have other stuff going on and my job is to make the class more interesting than anything else they could be doing. That changes the game significantly. I think the relevance here is that the piano keys introduce playfulness, and playfulness is a relaxed, open, accepting state that is part of a good learning experience for those in the class.
In a similar vein I have heard of teachers who have incorporated texting exercises in the classroom.