Experience Growth
What is Experience Design and Management?
The Department of Experience Design and Management (ExDM) positions itself at the academic forefront of the wave of economic and social interest in experiences. As organizations increasingly recognize the importance of focusing on the experiences they provide to customers, employees, and other stakeholders, they are looking to hire individuals who understand how to intentionally design, stage, and manage experiences that meet human needs. ExDM prepares it graduates to capitalize on these opportunities. Faculty in the ExDM Department are leaders in the development of scholarly empirical research and theory building to inform the practice of experience design and management.
Experience design is the process of intentionally designing interactions between participants and providers that generate valued outcomes. Experience management involves systematically staging and measuring experiences to promote data-driven continuous improvements.
The ExDM curriculum integrates competencies and theories from the scientific study of human experiences, human-centered design, social research methodologies, and business management. ExDM students learn how to intentionally design, stage, and manage human experiences across a wide variety of contexts.
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.
Core Values
- Designing and Managing Experiences Grounded in Truth – We value and design experiences rooted in eternal truth, supported by scientific theories, and validated by rigorous data gathering and analysis. By anchoring ourselves in these forms of truth, we are inspired to question our assumptions and set aside our personal biases in our quest to discover, refine, and solve human-centric problems.
- Practicing Courageous Curiosity and Creativity – We value and practice curiosity and creativity and recognize them as essential to effective experience design. Practicing curiosity and creativity means having the courage to approach all situations with an open mind and a willingness to seek new perspectives. Intentionally cultivating this mindset enhances empathy, which builds a stronger foundation for innovative and collaborative problem-solving.
- Building Community – We value human connection, and we are committed to building a community as we love God and follow the example of His Son in our day-to-day interactions. Our community thrives when we remember to recognize our shared humanity and divine nature, extend compassion, and give grace.
- Managing Experience Impact – We value experiences that help people and organizations flourish. We implement experience strategies and processes that cultivate well-being, support holistic, balanced development, and achieve individual and organizational goals. Our focus on creating positive impact extends the reach of the experience design and management discipline and motivates us to continually improve.