To cope with persistent mental health issues after the pandemic, theoretical and practical studies on autonomy and motivation of students in higher education are necessary. One critical research question is to ask how to support the psychological needs in the learning experience for students, based on learner-centered concept and enhanced through design methods and emerging technologies. The objective of this paper is to review and investigate how to develop guidelines and design strategies for autonomy-supportive learning experiences for higher education students. This study is based on self-determination theory (SDT) to specifically review the autonomy-supportive ingredients as the foundation of this research. Also, this study utilizes learning experience design (LXD) methods, as well as the principles of user experience design in the design processing. As a result, a design path to integrate the autonomy-support into learning experience design is proposed, containing 4 parts of Understanding, Heuristics, Pedagogy and Technology, which represents a possible design framework for LXD practice. The contribution of this paper is to provide a more open, inclusive autonomy-supportive LXD than traditional instructional design to satisfy students’ psychological need in their higher education learning journey.