Experience Design and Management BS
Program Purpose
What is Experience Design and Management?
Experience Design and Management (ExDM) is the systematic practice of researching, designing, staging, and continuously improving human experiences, through rigorous measurement and evaluation, to create valued outcomes while promoting human flourishing.
The most effective experience designers speak both the language of design and the language of business. Most professionals speak one or the other. ExDM trains students in both, holding them to professional standards in each. As organizations increasingly recognize that how people experience what they offer shapes outcomes that matter, they need professionals trained to design those experiences well. That capacity is rare, and ExDM prepares students to provide it.
Experiences are not just a professional domain. They are how people learn, grow, connect, and find meaning. ExDM prepares graduates to design them well, with skill and genuine care for the people who experience them.
ExDM prepares graduates for three professional functions that appear wherever organizations serve people: Experience Research, Experience Design, and Experience Production. Every industry needs professionals who can do these things well.
Our Mission and Vision
Vision. We aspire to lift the world through intentional experiences.
Mission. We follow Jesus Christ and embrace our uniqueness as we develop and inspire tomorrow's experience design and management leaders.
Guiding Principle. Staying human-centered. We evaluate our decisions, behaviors, and attitudes by the extent to which they elevate individual and collective well-being, contribute to the balanced development of the total person, and create space for the respectful expression of and responsiveness to dynamic human needs.
Values
- Truth. We root experience design in eternal truth, scientific theories, and rigorous data, setting aside bias in our quest to discover and solve human-centered problems.
- Curiosity and Creativity. We practice curiosity and creativity as essential to effective experience design, cultivating courage, empathy, and openness to new perspectives.
- Community. We value human connection and build community as we love God and follow the example of His Son, recognizing our shared humanity and divine nature.
- Experience Impact. We design and implement experience strategies that cultivate well-being, support balanced development, and achieve individual and organizational goals.
Grounded in Christ's Example
Experience is the medium God uses to help His children progress: mortality itself is a designed experience through which His children could exercise the agency that becoming like Him required (see Moses 1:39). ExDM takes experience seriously as a genuine phenomenon. A patient's fear in a waiting room, a new employee's first day, a customer's frustration with a return policy are not incidental. They are structured, consequential, and capable of being designed well or poorly, whether or not anyone intended them.
Christ's own example points the way to designing well. Scripture teaches that He entered fully into the suffering of those He served, "that his bowels may be filled with mercy... that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities" (Alma 7:11-12). That pattern, genuine understanding of the people you serve before responding to their needs, is the foundation of human-centered design. ExDM prepares students to create experiences that honor agency, direct attention with integrity, and build genuine bonds. That is what it means to lift the world through intentional experiences.
Learning Outcomes
Integrate Business with Experience Design
ExDM graduates are business school graduates who specialize in experience design, fluent across organizational functions and capable of connecting design decisions to financial, operational, and strategic outcomes. Integration is both a skill and a mindset: students learn to speak the language of every business function, apply core business competencies directly to design problems, and sustain the intellectual curiosity that makes them effective across the full breadth of organizational life. This integration reflects BYU's aim of intellectual enlargement, developing students who think broadly, reason rigorously, and bring that capacity to bear in service of others, not merely in pursuit of professional advancement.
ExDM students are trained design researchers. Research is not a preliminary step they complete before the real work begins; it is a discipline they practice throughout the design process, sharpening creative decisions by grounding them in what stakeholders actually need. Three capabilities define this PLO: deep stakeholder understanding through empathic inquiry; rigorous collection, analysis, and interpretation of qualitative and quantitative data; and the communication of findings in ways that connect evidence to defensible design decisions. Data and creativity are not in tension: better stakeholder understanding produces more focused, more effective design. Research in ExDM is also a practice of intellectual humility and truth-seeking, values central to BYU's educational mission and to the Christlike character students are developing alongside their professional competence.
ExDM designers work through a disciplined process, guided by theory, and grounded in the foundational principles that make experiences both aesthetically coherent and functionally effective. That process applies across the full range of what experience design encompasses, from efficient transactions that respect people's time and needs to transformative engagements that change how they think, feel, or act. Process gives structure to creativity: students move from understanding context through ideation, prototyping, and testing with method and intention at every stage. Theory gives design decisions their defensibility: students learn to match validated frameworks to identified needs rather than defaulting to intuition or habit. And foundational design principles give their work professional quality, ensuring that what they create is not just thoughtful but well-crafted. Students develop across three dimensions: reading the human, organizational, and systemic context that defines the design problem; executing the full design process with discipline-specific fluency; and advocating for design choices in ways that connect creative decisions to business outcomes. Designing well is an act of service: ExDM graduates are trained to design not only for client satisfaction but for human flourishing, consistent with BYU's educational mission.
Implementation is where design ambition meets organizational reality, where character matters as much as competence. This PLO develops the leadership, project management, and stakeholder navigation skills that transform strong proposals into delivered experiences. The Christlike leadership framework defines not just how students manage but how they show up: in service to colleagues and clients, accountable to design intent, and honest when constraints require adaptation. ExDM graduates are practitioners who can get things done without losing sight of what they set out to create. Leadership in ExDM is inseparable from character: students are not only trained to manage projects and people effectively but to do so as a form of discipleship, modeling the integrity, accountability, and care for others that defines Christlike professional practice.
ExDM graduates design and evaluate from the same foundation. The documents students produce throughout the design process are intentionally built to serve two purposes: they guide design decisions as the work unfolds, and they anchor evaluation once the experience is delivered. This is not an accident of good practice; it is a professional discipline ExDM students learn explicitly. By building evaluation into the design process from the start, students ensure that measurement is always grounded in design intent rather than imposed after the fact. They develop the ability to assess experiences at the micro level, including specific interactions and touchpoints, and at the macro level, including overall outcomes and organizational ROX, and to communicate findings with the precision and honesty that earns organizational trust. Honest evaluation is itself a moral practice: ExDM graduates are trained to report what the evidence actually shows, a commitment to truth that reflects both rigorous intellectual standards and the integrity BYU's mission asks of its graduates.
Evidence of Learning
Learning and Teaching Assessment and Improvement
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from Fall 2012
Faculty met in February 2013 to share and consider results from assessments/evidences of learning aligned with Experience Industry Management Learning Outcomes. Efforts to assure that these assessments provide quality measures were also reviewed. Faculty determined to shift some assessments from one learning outcome to another and to remove some assessments that were determined to inadequately measure learning outcomes. Other assessments were identified for revision to better measure learning outcomes. A discussion about curriculum gaps and overlap followed our analysis of learning outcome assessments. Specific questions about curriculum that includes programming as it relates to embracing diverse groups were considered. Curriculum shifts were then planned by faculty members in the classes they teach to better meet learning outcomes. Also, pre and post assessments were considered by faculty. Finally, a determination to coordinate specific course dyads (RECM 300 and RECM 404, RECM 420 and RECM 487, RECM 430 and RECM 490) was made.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from Winter 2013
At the Summer Assessment Meeting, June 11, 2013, faculty met to share and consider results from assessments/evidences of learning aligned with Experience Industry Management Learning Outcomes. More thorough and careful analysis of learning assessment measures was provided by faculty. The Learning Outcomes Matrix was discussed in-depth and a new format was developed and provided to more closely match accreditation expectations. Further, faculty agreed to add two new performance measures to next semester's analysis: a cultural intelligence assignment to address standard 7.01 and an in-class experience staging assignment to address standard 7.02. Faculty also determined to adjust RECM 404 to better meet 7.01 accreditation standards especially as it pertains to teaching "techniques and processes used by professionals and workers in these industries." Finally, faculty committed to integrate assignments from RECM 486 Risk Management in Recreation with the capstone project in RECM 490 Senior Capstone.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from Fall 2013
At the Winter Assessment Meeting, January 10, 2014, faculty met to share and consider results from assessments/evidences of learning aligned with Experience Industry Management Learning Outcomes. Faculty presented each learning outcome performance measure they assessed to the group-describing changes made since the last meeting, details of the learning outcome measure, results for this measure in Winter 2013, their interpretation of the results, and changes they recommended given these results. It appears that all faculty responsible for learning outcome assessment have begun to use results each semester as an impetus to make adjustments to instruction and assignment construction. New readings have been adopted, instruction has been enhanced, assignments have been clarified and rubrics developed, new assignments have been prepared, and new exam items have been written. Faculty discussed the difficulty of expecting similar learning outcome assessments across different sections and instructors for the same course. An effort will be made to develop common learning outcome assessments for RECM 404 and RECM 420 while maintaining academic freedom in the way that content is delivered.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from Winter 2014
At the Winter Assessment Meeting, April 25, 2014, faculty met to share and consider results from assessments/evidences of learning aligned with Experience Industry Management (EIM) Learning Outcomes. Faculty presented each learning outcome performance measure they assessed to the group-describing changes made since the last meeting, details of the learning outcome measure, results for this measure in Winter 2014, their interpretation of the results, and changes they recommended given these results. Several topical and assignment shifts were discussed and will be implemented in coming semesters. A Professional Development Plan unit and assignment will be shifted to RECM 404 and removed from RECM 430. A new unit and quiz on the History of Management were added to RECM 430 as well. The staging of various finance-based assignments were discussed and faculty decided that one assignment in the junior EIM core and one in the senior EIM core would be appropriate and avoid to much overlap. These financial units and assignments will move to RECM 430 and remain in RECM 490. Another important discussion item addressed student desires to be assigned a single semester-wide group during the senior EIM core. The EIM coordinator will be responsible to make these assignments by the second week of classes. Faculty also discussed the merits of a standardized style that might be adopted across curriculum. While APA is the common academic style used in the department, some faculty felt that a more business-friendly style might be more appropriate. No specific decision was made on this issue. Finally, some of the implications of once-a-year offerings were briefly introduced to faculty.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from 2014-15 Academic Year
At the 2014-2015 Assessment Meetings, April 20, 2015 and April 23, 2015, Experience Industry Management faculty met to consider curriculum change and to interpret learning outcome results. They brainstormed competency skills that might be added to the curriculum and discussed which classes each competency might best fit. These competencies included negotiation, empathy-as developed by the Arbinger Institute, crucial conversations-as developed by Vital Smarts, data presentation, Six Sigma, economic impact analysis, project management certification, social media, customer experience, professionalism, forecasting, budgeting, and contracts/sponsorship. Faculty committed to integrate a number of new competencies by adding content and assignments to curriculum in the coming year. Several professional development opportunities will be pursued for faculty related to these competencies during the summer of 2015. In a second meeting, faculty presented each learning outcome performance measure assessed in their courses to the group-reporting their results in 2014 and 2015 and suggesting curriculum adjustments that might be appropriate based on these results. Some learning outcome assessments were judged to be adequate and will not be changed at this time. Other assessment results suggested changes should be made to curriculum and the outcome assessments particularly in the 7.03 standard. Further, several new outcome assessments will be implemented in the coming year including a project management assignment, a break-even analysis assignment, and an experience final project report, presentation, and final evaluation report. Faculty also spent time discussing ways that courses might be altered to address the rising class GPAs associated with the limited enrollment program. Concerns were expressed about reaching class GPA targets established by the college as students continue to improve their performance in department classes
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from 2015-2016 Academic Year
The Experience Industry Management Program faculty met multiple times during winter semester 2016 to discuss curriculum issues including content coordination, elective offerings and scheduling, the possibility of offering curriculum certificates, and course name changes. At the 2015-2016 Learning Outcome Assessment Meeting held April 21, 2016, faculty shared learning outcome results and discussed implications of these results on curriculum change. We reviewed changes to curriculum made during the past year as described in last year's report and changes made to learning outcome assessments themselves. A significant amount of time has been devoted to the possibility of a change to the department name in recent weeks. That discussion continued in this meeting and a decision was made to propose changing the name of the department to Experience Industry (or Industries) Management in late summer unless a better alternative might be suggested and developed before then. Other issues discussed in this meeting included changes to outcome assessments and meeting GPA targets. Most outcome assessments will be left unchanged for the coming year, others will be modified, and others will be replaced with improved assessments to better fit our evolving curriculum. Each year the quality of students entering our program seems to increase, especially as we move further into a limited enrollment program. Therefore, meeting class GPA targets of 3.2 and 3.4 continues to be difficult. Some strategies shared and considered by faculty were changing the grading scale (e.g. A 94-100, A- 91-93.99), setting a target average for each assignment, curving grades down, and regularly reminding students of the class GPA targets. One final, fruitful, discussion focused on the development of a program-wide writing style guide that might be used in all classes. It was determined that a common APA style-guide is already being used in the introductory and junior core courses. Modifications to the style guide will be considered.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from 2016-2017 Academic Year
The Experience Industry Management Program faculty, soon to be the Experience Design and Management faculty, met multiple times during fall semester 2016 to discuss curriculum issues including content coordination, elective offerings and scheduling, and course name and description changes. Most of these changes were meant to adjust to a new program and department name, Experience Design and Management, which has now been approved by the college, university, and Board of Trustees. At the 2016-2017 Learning Outcome Assessment Meeting held May 5, 2017, faculty shared learning outcome results and discussed implications of these results on curriculum change. Specific course changes were discussed as we considered each specific learning outcome. Some of the changes included moving professional and experience industry content and assessment to RECM 404 Foundations and Fundamentals and a newly required RECM 489 Careers in Recreation class, adding assessments to the "techniques and processes" learning outcome, formally coordinating between RECM 415 Experience Design and RECM 425 Event and Experience Management, shifting project management content and assignments to RECM 425, and refining the innovation tournament implemented in RECM 490 Experience Industry Capstone.
Besides considering specific class curriculum, faculty further discussed broader curriculum questions. They wondered about curriculum gaps that may exist. They noted the continued need to provide specific hard skills such as marketing graphic design skills like InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator that are currently available through an Experience Industry Marketing elective course. Other skill gaps suggested from a survey of experience design professionals included innovation and creativity, additional real-world experiences, and project management content. Faculty talked about the balance between breadth and depth in the curriculum and concluded that conceptual breadth coupled with hard skill depth may be most useful to our students. The need for more quantitative skills was a topic throughout the day's discussions. Greater emphasis on Qualtrics was considered as one way to improve these skills. Faculty noted their desire to move the Experience Industry Marketing course into the core at some future date. Finally, a discussion of the current state of program electives finished the day's deliberations.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from 2017-2018 Academic Year
The Experience Design and Management Program faculty met on April 30, 2018 to review learning outcome assessments and discuss curriculum in the program. The initial 90-minute meeting allowed faculty to report on the learning outcome assessment results from their specific classes and explain the changes they expected to make for continuous improvement in the coming semesters. The remainder of the day was devoted to a broader curriculum discussion. During this discussion, a set of experience design and management competencies desirable for our students were identified. (List some of these here). Faculty committed to reach out to other stakeholders, including students and professionals, to validate and add to this list. Results from a survey of students about curriculum issues were also presented. Later in the day, faculty discussed where these competencies were addressed or might be better addressed. It was noted that competencies not adequately addressed were most likely to be quantitative in nature. Again, the need for more quantitative instruction, practice, and mastery are apparent. Faculty observed students definitely have the ability to utilize quantitative analysis, but still resist quantitative challenges. We continue to desire an upgrade of this skill for our students. The faculty closed the meeting with the commitment to meet again in the summer and through the early fall to make curriculum changes introduced in this meeting.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from 2018-2019 Academic Year
The Experience Design and Management Program faculty met for a curriculum retreat on April 18, 2019 for a full day of curriculum discussion. Data from this table were not available at the time but other sources of pertinent assessment were presented and discussed. Also, a selection of students Rachel Glazier, Jonathan Pelaka, Stephanie Janczak, and Ashley Paget and professionals John Connors (Everything Experience), Case Lawrence (Circus Trix), Rachel Drean (Pluralsight), and Tim Johnson (Maple Academy) were included in a part of the curriculum analysis.
The first part of the day focused involved the faculty collaboratively developing an aspirational goal for the department along with a student journey map. This map was presented to the students and professionals to solicit feedback. Faculty took notes on the feedback and organized and voted on the most salient insights from these groups. Based upon this work faculty then identified areas of the student journey to work on in teams. The journey map, selected areas, and assigned teams are displayed in the figure below. Each team will present their work at the department fall retreat later this year.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from 2019-2020 Academic Year
The Experience Design and Management Program faculty conducts ann annual survey from students regarding the previous years' curriculum. Faculty met to discuss the results of this survey and to strategize about further curriculum continuous improvement efforts during the 2020 spring and summer terms. These meetings occurred weekly during much of this time period and also included two separate curriculum workshops one of which involved all adjunct faculty as well. Curriculum design efforts over the last year have led to the introduction of four new elective courses that will be delivered during the 2020-2021 academic year: diversity and inclusion, experience design research, trends and opportunities in the experience economy, and managing guest and customer experience journeys.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from 2020-2021 Academic Year
The Experience Design and Management Program faculty conducts an annual survey from students regarding the previous years' curriculum. Faculty met to discuss the results of this survey and to strategize about further curriculum continuous improvement efforts during the 2021 spring and summer terms. In our 2021-2022 Assessment of Learning Outcomes we will be adding learning opportunities from two courses that we recently added to our core curriculum: ExDM 350: Experiences in Diversity and Inclusion and ExDM 416: Experiential Marketing. In addition, to better portray the attainment of knowledge and skills related to the operations and strategic management and administration of experience-related businesses and agencies, an indirect assessment measure will be created during the 2021-22 academic year. Students will indicate their efficacy in performing various operations and strategic and administrative functions as a result of the 32 hours of business core classes completed in the Marriott School of Business.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from 2021-2022 Academic Year
The Experience Design and Management faculty met on April 28th for a day long curriculum retreat to review and discuss all course offerings, learning outcomes, and evidences of student learning. Faculty reviewed all course descriptions and learning outcomes. Faculty committed to revisions as needed. Learning outcome evidences were reviewed by faculty for their individual courses and those results were shared with the rest of the faculty. Discussion of potential course modifications also occurred.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from 2022-2023 Academic Year
The Experience Design and Management faculty met on May 12, 2023 for a day long curriculum retreat to review and discuss all course offerings, learning outcomes, and evidences of student learning. Faculty reviewed all course descriptions and learning outcomes. Faculty committed to revisions as needed. Learning outcome evidences were reviewed by faculty for their individual courses and those results were shared with the rest of the faculty. Discussion of potential course modifications also occurred. Adjunct faculty were also invited to the retreat. Those in attendance provided feedback on the elective courses they teach and integration with core curricular offerings. Five adjuncts were in attendance.
Assessment Results and Improvement Plan from 2023-2024
The Experience Design and Management faculty met on June 4, 2024 for a day long curriculum retreat to review and discuss all course offerings, learning outcomes, and evidences of student learning. Faculty reviewed all course descriptions and learning outcomes. Faculty committed to revisions as needed. Learning outcome evidences were reviewed by faculty for their individual courses and those results were shared with the rest of the faculty. Discussion of potential course modifications also occurred including the sequencing of core courses and internship requirements. Adjunct faculty were also invited to the retreat. Those in attendance provided feedback on the elective courses they teach and integration with core curricular offerings. Four adjuncts were in attendance.