Your ExDM student experience begins with core courses in
- Experience design concepts and methodologies,
- design thinking,
- professional development, and
- social psychological, design, and management theories that provide you with frameworks for effective human-centered design.
You’ll learn what motivates human behavior, and how you can influence that behavior to increase brand loyalty through the design and management of experiences. You’ll learn what humans fundamentally need to thrive, and how to use that knowledge to design better experiences in professional and even personal settings. And, you’ll get to see how what you are learning is used in day-to-day and strategic operations by attending professional site visits to local, regional, and even national businesses.
Additional core courses cover
- the business value of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging,
- agile project management,
- experiential marketing,
- data-driven experience insights, and
- need-finding.
Elective courses focused on subareas of experience design like Customer Experience Management, Patient Experience, Product Management, and User Experience allow students to follow their interests in experience management. Other elective courses like Sport Entertainment and Venue Management, Hospitality, or Festivals and Events allow students to pursue their interests in specific industries where experiences are the main economic offering. Still other electives create opportunities for students to engage in mentored experience design research and prepare for graduate school.
Courses in ExDM emphasize group or teamwork, project-based learning, and direct partnerships with clients. Students complete a required industry-relevant 400-hour internship before graduating.
In addition to active engagement in classes, students are encouraged to participate in a variety of program-specific extracurricular activities including Experience Design Society events, professional site visits, new student orientation, and the senior spark and peak experiences. By fully immersing themselves in the program, students will have the optimal BYU Marriott ExDM experience.