Building Learning Experience Design Pros by Supporting DESIGNxHUMANITY

October 14, 2020
5 minutes
This week Nyla Spooner joins us to talk about Building Learning Experience Design Pros by Supporting DESIGNxHUMANITY

Nyla Spooner is a founder of DESIGNxHUMANITY, a design collective and apprenticeship program pairing experienced creatives with fresh faces to collaborate on real-world projects advocating for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). The collective works on all topics regarding equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism.  

Nyla was a member of the panel on our #IDIDOC episode The Intersection of Racial Justice and L&D in June.  

She returned to Instructional Designers in Offices Drinking Coffee this week to share details of how DESIGNxHUMANITY has been growing and even changing in the few months since it was formed.

DESIGNxHUMANITY’s mission is to up-skill Black Americans and allies committed to the pursuit of learning-by-doing into LX, design, and technical roles through an immersive design boot camp.

It also provides various creative services to organizations seeking consultation, products, and learning experiences designed from an anti-racist perspective. And it advocates for equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism.

Within months of being formed the community quickly jumped to hundreds of members creating some growth concerns for Nyla and the team. But they’ve continued to move forward and currently have three major projects nearing completion.  

As they continue to grow they are also adjusting and pivoting to meet the needs of the different groups they serve.  DxH has partners, volunteers, leaders, and companies looking for L&D talent, to name a few.  That requires a lot of coordination, strategy efforts, and planning to make sure each group is supported. And to do it during a global pandemic makes it even more complicated.

Check out the replay and hear about how she has been handling the issues confronting her and the entire DxH community as we head into the end of 2020 and look forward to the new year.

You can view the full archive recording which includes the chat comments here.  

About Nyla Spooner

Nyla Spooner is an experienced instructional designer creating opportunities for people to develop and unleash their expertise. Having worked across multiple industries including commercial film, oil and gas, and retail - she has a keen sense of what it takes to facilitate real change in an organization. She has committed to helping 100 women of color enter the learning and development space over the next five years through peer mentoring and hosts a podcast for new instructional designers called, "I'm New Here".

Check out Nyla’s personal website here, and don’t forget to check out the link to her blog which includes episodes of her podcast I’m New Here.


About IDIODC

Instructional Designers in Offices Drinking Coffee (affectionately known as IDIODC) is a weekly live videocast and podcast that helps instructional designers with pain points and provides best practices and industry insight.  

Every Wednesday morning at 10am ET hosts Brent Schlenker and Chris Van Wingerden guide us through an upbeat and candid conversation with their guests from the elearning and training world. The live cast session encourages peers to participate in the chat and share their own personal insight! After airing live, you can catch the learning podcast on all major streams such as Spotify, Apple and Google Play podcasts, as well as on YouTube.