Design in the HCI Classroom: Setting a Research Agenda

Interaction design is playing an increasingly prominent role in computing research, while professional user experience roles expand. These forces drive the demand for more design instruction in HCI classrooms. In this paper, we distill the popular approaches to teaching design to undergraduate and graduate students of HCI. Through a review of existing research on design pedagogy, an international survey of 61 HCI educators, and an analysis of popular textbooks, we explore the prominent disciplinary perspectives that shape design education in the HCI classroom. We draw on our analyses to discuss the differences we see in forms of design taught, approaches to adapting design instruction in computing-based courses, and the tensions faced by instructors of these classes. We conclude by arguing for the importance of pedagogical research on design instruction as a vital and foundational area of inquiry in Interaction Design and HCI.

• Education Innovation

• Human-Computer Interaction and Visualization