Meaningful Learning

This project started as the foundation for a PhD in Philosophy and Human Sciences. I did not complete it, but the thinking behind it keeps showing up in my work.

The research looked at the intersection of UX design and learning sciences, specifically at how UX principles could be applied to technology-enhanced learning that is personalised, inclusive, and built with ethics in mind. At the time, Learning Experience Design (LXD) was young and thinly researched. 

What I kept coming back to was not the technology itself, but the gap between what it could do for learners and what it was actually doing. I thought design could close that gap. I still think so.

The project examined how UX design, instructional design, information architecture, and cognitive and behavioural sciences could work together as an integrated practice, not just as parallel disciplines, for designing learning that works and that people actually want to engage with.

Ethics, inclusivity, and wellbeing 

Technology-enhanced learning raises real ethical questions around data, personalisation, privacy, and user wellbeing, especially for younger users. The research drew on EU guidelines for AI ethics and IEEE frameworks for autonomous systems to work out what those implications mean in practice, for designers.

Educational technology and AI The project looked at machine learning applied to personalised education, and at what blockchain might offer for certification and content. These were emerging conversations in 2020. Most of them are unresolved ones now.

Much of what this research was pointing toward has since arrived: AI-powered personalisation, ethical design frameworks, accessibility as a default. The questions it was asking in 2020 are the ones the industry is still working out how to answer.

The research fed directly into a Learning Experience Design certificate (Novoed, 2021) and continues to shape how I approach any project at the intersection of design, technology, and human experience.