LXD Group Blog

• 🌱 LxD Group Blog
  • 📘 What is Learner Experience Design (LxD)?
  • 🌗 Theme Switching
  • 🎮 LxD Ninja Game
  • 📝 Reflection

🌱 LxD Group Blog

Exploring the principles of Learner Experience Design through practice, reflection, and play.

📘 What is Learner Experience Design (LxD)?

LxD is about creating meaningful learning experiences through active experimentation and reflection. It emphasizes learning by doing: trying, making mistakes, reflecting, and improving. Each challenge is an opportunity to grow and strengthen problem-solving skills.

💡 Key Idea: Every error is feedback. Use it to improve, not to stop.

🌗 Theme Switching

Theme switching lets us change how the blog looks without breaking content. Instead of editing everything by hand, we use a _themes/ folder and a Makefile that copies the right files into place. Jekyll always checks for layouts locally first, and only uses the remote theme if no local override exists.

• So Simple → clean, lightweight, minimal distractions
• Cayman → colorful, GitHub-flavored style
• Minima → Jekyll’s default, flexible but plain
• Yat → modern, bold typography with sidebar navigation

Each theme has its own _config.yml, Gemfile, and _layouts/ folder. The Makefile automates copying the correct set into the root. For example:

make use-so-simple   # applies So Simple theme
make use-minima      # switches to Minima
make use-yat         # switches to Yat
    

After running a command, Jekyll rebuilds with the selected theme. Because layouts like opencs.html are stored locally, they override the default theme layouts—allowing us to keep custom pages while still swapping between themes.

How to try it yourself: 1) Run a make use-[theme] command.
2) Start the site with jekyll serve.
3) Open http://localhost:4000 and see the new theme in action.
4) Switch again and notice that content never changes—only the presentation.

🎮 LxD Ninja Game

Swipe with your mouse: slice good practices ✅ and avoid the bad ones ❌. Score 15 points to unlock the reflection section!

📝 Reflection

Switching themes is not just about style—it’s about adaptability. By keeping layouts modular and using a Makefile, we can swap presentation without rewriting content. This mirrors LxD: design learning so it adapts to the learner, not the other way around.

Takeaway: Jekyll theme switching shows how structure + flexibility create resilience. In the same way, learners grow best when given space to try, adapt, and reflect.