Teaching/Learning IA: Considerations for UX Strategy in Educational Contexts

Guiseppe GettoAssistant Professor of Technical and Professional Communicationhttp://guiseppegetto.com gettog@ecu.edu

IntroductionThis poster is a depiction of the workflow I’m using on two UX projects I’m working on, and a graduate UX class I’m teaching, as part of my position as an Assistant Professor of Technical and Professional Communication at East Carolina University. The first project involves helping the design team behind a coastal mapping application (http://www.nccoastalatlas.org/) to create and sustain personas for various user groups, and the second involves helping ECU Libraries (http://www.ecu.edu/ecu/libraries.php) staff to develop a comprehensive UX strategy for the design and implementation of their services. The class I’m teaching is a graduate-level introduction to UX methods: http://www.guiseppegetto.com/engl7766ux/.

UX Teaching/Learning Methods

In order to balance my research, teaching, and service commitments as an academic interested in UX design, I needed to develop a light, flexible framework for doing my own work, for introducing others to core UX concepts, and for helping others put UX into practice.

Here are the main elements of this framework:

1) Ways to teach: My job is usually to take someone who has zero direct experience with UX and get them going on a UX project. Below are some ways I’ve done this.

• Team strategy sessions – get everyone in a room together who will be working on a given project, introduce some main project elements (e.g. people, workflow, deadlines, goals/outcomes, deliverables), and have them discuss until a plan emerges. Messy, but effective when dealing with collaborative projects.

• Workshops – if everyone keeps coming to you in your organization asking the same questions, why not turn those questions into a workshop on the main topics arising? The more hands-on you can make it, the better. You could introduce a series of workshops that rotate so everyone is sure to get served the knowledge they need.

• Research expeditions – having a hard time getting people to understand the UX process or other concepts? Why not organize an expedition of willing souls to a UX conference, meet up, or to talk to some users they don’t usually encounter? In my experience, the more people do UX, the more they start to like it and respect it as a legitimate form of design practice. And sometimes you just need someone else echoing what you’ve been saying in meetings.

• Collaborative projects – is a there a group of people (or multiple groups) who are really struggling to do UX? Why not get in there with them and help them? Make sure you define your role, though! There’s nothing worse than people not understanding why you’re in the room with them and questioning your every suggestion.

.

Who Might Use This Workflow?1) UX Leads looking to quickly get new members of their team up-to-speed.

2) Business managers looking for maximum impact from UX consultants.

3) UX educators in industry or the academy.

4) Anyone new to UX.

Further Work Needed

The few of us in the academy who are working at the intersections of UX methods, research, and teaching need your help!

Here are a few things we could REALly use from industry folks:

1) Help teaching UX in ways that match industry best practices.

2) Help learning UX ourselves.

3) Help doing UX research that is sustainable and that has real organizational impacts.

4) Help adapting UX best practices to educational contexts.

ReferencesAs an academic with no industry background in UX, I use the blogs, books,

and conference presentations of industry thought leaders to help me. Here’s a list of resources I consult on a regular basis: http://guiseppegetto.com/ux-library/.

2) Things to teach: I’ve found that there are certain concepts that are essential for folks without direct UX experience to understand if they’re going to begin to actually do UX.

• UX process – A lot of folks in education start from the idea that UX is something you do after you’ve built something to make sure it works. Introducing the idea that UX is a process that starts as soon as product development starts is key.

• UX is more than usability – A lot of folks also consider UX to be a simple rebranding of usability. Introducing them to other elements of UX besides usability, like information architecture, user research, and visual design, is key to dispelling this notion.

• UX methods – I’ve also found that getting people working with actual methods (e.g. card sorting, usability testing, contextual inquiry, wireframing, etc.) helps them understand what UX is much more than just talking about it.

3) Impactful teaching: This is a concept I borrow from the field of instructional design. It works on two levels: you learn by teaching, and people learn best when you focus on where they’re at as learners. Below are some best practices I’ve adopted to ensure I’m having a positiveimpact on the people I’m working with.

• Have them think like researchers and problem solvers – If folks see UX as an add-on to work they’re already doing, they won’t invest in it. They have to see it as a way to solve problems they’re facing.

• Worry about sustainability first and last – People don’t become UX experts over night. It’s better to have a small, sustainable impact, than a big one that won’t ever happen again once you’re not around.