Designers should compile case studies of student engagement to challenge and reflect on multifaceted user interactions, as these are valuable pedagogical tools.
About this paper
The author investigates how HCI education introduces students to working with diverse users through a case study of a 10-week prototyping course involving co-design sessions with children.
Findings reveal communication challenges, power dynamics, and the perceived value of user engagement, suggesting the need for reflective HCI pedagogy and further study into educational practices.
Here are some methods used in this study:
Which part of the paper did the design guideline come from?
“Our findings reveal how design students communicated with their users and challenges therein, the complex role of power dynamics between designer, user, HCI student, and other course stakeholders (e.g., the educator), and how the students perceived value in working with users through reflection. Our work shows the need for more intentional focus and investigation on HCI pedagogy, such as how HCI students build rapport with their users or how they navigate complex power dynamics when engaging (...)” (‘Findings’ section)
Roldan, W., Gao, X., Hishikawa, A. M., Ku, T., Li, Z., Zhang, E., Froehlich, J. E., & Yip, J. (2020). Opportunities and Challenges in Involving Users in Project-Based HCI Education. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.