Change by Stealth: Influencing Design Education

Ensuring that designers have the appropriate skills for addressing twenty-first century challenges and encouraging a greater understanding of how design can be used to shape society, should undoubtedly be the priorities of a contemporary design education agenda.

Hewer, Susan. Design for All (2006). Design>User Centered Design>Education

Crafting a User Experience Curriculum

It isn’t often that one has the opportunity to create a course about user experience, let alone an entire sequence of user experience courses. Jason Withrow's opportunity forced him to examine his perceptions of the user experience industry.

Withrow, Jason. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>Education>User Experience>User Centered Design

IDII: A Life Changing Experience

Almost two years ago, twenty students from all over the world came to Ivrea, a city that once was the epicenter of Olivetti and of the Italian Hi-tech. They came to study interaction design.

Kikin-Gil, Erez and Ruth Kikin-Gil. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Education>User Centered Design>Italy

Twenty Ways to Make Lectures More Participatory

Lectures play a vital role in teaching. There will always be a place for lectures in the curriculum -- to give technical material or factual information, to provide structure to material or an argument, to display a method or example of how one thinks in a given field, or even to inspire and motivate students to explore further. At the same time, it often enhances both your presentation of the material and students’ learning when students are able to participate in some way. When students engage actively with material, they generally understand it better and remember it longer.

Harvard University (2002). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>User Centered Design

Usability Testing and User-Centered Design in Technical Communication Programs: Current and Emergent Models  

In recent years, technical communication programs have begun to introduce students to the principles of usability testing. A natural outgrowth of the traditional technical communication emphasis on audience analysis and user advocacy, usability testing also serves as an interesting and potentially lucrative career path for some technical communicators, and introduces a fascinating research trajectory for students and faculty alike. It’s no surprise that technical programs are incorporating usability testing instruction in one of two ways: some offer separate courses in usability testing at the undergraduate or graduate level. Specialized labs and corporate collaborations are often associated with such curriculum designs. Most incorporate usability into specific courses in a 'usability across the curriculum' model. Typically, existing computer labs double as usability testing facilities. These efforts are admirable, but leading scholars and practitioners agree that usability testing alone, because it occurs late in the product development cycle, no longer suffices. A gradual movement toward continuous user involvement at all stages of product development is underway.

Kitalong, Karla Saari. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Usability>User Centered Design

Emotional Intelligence: Putting Theory into Practice

Social and emotional learning may seem difficult to teach, but there are activities out there that can help.

Edutopia (2008). Articles>Education>Emotions>User Centered Design