Learning Experience Design: Visuals, Immersion, and Practical Application with Mel Milloway

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Bad design gets noticed instantly. Good design fades into the background.  

In this episode, host Matt Pierce is joined by Melissa Milloway (Mel). With over 15 years’ experience in Instructional Design, Mel now uses her expertise to build teams that design learning for tech. She talks about how heavily visual choices influence what a learner takes away from an experience. 

Mel breaks down how she decides what earns a place on the screen, the small details that shape a learners’ focus, and how skill cannot be built on theory alone.  

She also explains how she uses AI to speed up production without losing realism and previews a project that she is currently working on for the upcoming DevLearn Conference.  

Learning points from the episode include:  

• Every visual choice should be intentional. If you can't explain why something's on the screen, Mel says it probably shouldn't be there. 
• Spacing isn’t just aesthetic. Mel points to an existing UX concept called the ‘BFFs of spacing’, which explains how visual elements placed close together read as related, while elements placed further apart read as unrelated. This is often the case whether you intend it to be or not. 
• Realistic practice, like Mel's 911 dispatcher training scenario, works because it closely mirrors the pressure and ambiguity of the real situation, so the actual moment isn't a surprise when it happens. 

Important links and mentions: 

• Connect with Melissa Milloway on LinkedIn
• Mel's upcoming book, "Getting Unstuck in Learning Design" (available for pre-order, out February)