UX Education

The UX industry is complex to both practice in and teach about. Through interviews with practitioners, we identified five challenges facing the field: misconceptions about UX, untested education models, added complexity, increased systematization, and ever-changing job roles. To move forward, we need more dialogue between industry and academia.

While being a good communicator is a key skill for user experience (UX) practitioners, human-computer interaction (HCI) education typically prioritizes the creation of tangible project deliverables, e.g., wireframes, over providing students with a more complete set of communication skills. In this paper, we draw from an analysis of 60 interviews with experienced UX professionals to argue that a nuanced understanding of communication strategies should be explicitly included in HCI education. Specifically, we identify five goals that shape communications between UX practitioners and four distinct audiences and show that they select specific methods (techniques, artifacts, and tools) to achieve these goals. Drawing on theories of situated and authentic learning, we discuss three key implications for HCI educators: embracing rhetorical complexity, simulating real-world communication challenges, and highlighting the performative elements of communication. Educators must embrace these challenges to help students become more effective communicators and prepare them for UX careers.

Web design standards have evolved considerably since the introduction of smartphones and tablets, but many academic library websites have fallen behind, perhaps due to a lack of internal user experience (UX) research and design practices. This article presents a discussion of various UX research and design methods undertaken by the Pratt Institute Libraries via collaboration with courses in Pratt’s School of Information. Projects discussed include web analytics, user testing, online surveys, personas definition, card sorting, and prototyping. The insights gained from this study may be of assistance to other academic libraries planning to redesign and improve their online experience.

The field of user experience (UX) is growing and rapidly evolving. As instructors who teach in and help design UX programs for students in higher education, we are interested in developing compelling and relevant educational experiences for our students who aim to work as UX professionals. To gain a better understanding of the current expectations for working in the UX industry, we conducted 64 interviews with 71 senior UX industry professionals to learn about their current practices and their expectations of what skills new employees need to be successful working in UX. In this paper, we present a subset of findings from the study that focus on desired skills (both human and technical) and dispositions of UX employees. We discuss the implications of this research for teachers and students and a call for future work.

User experience (UX) is often cited as one of the fastest growing occupations, creating opportunities across nearly every sector for individuals skilled in the application of user‐centered design principles and methods. Many information and library schools have responded to this demand by introducing more UX coursework into their curriculum, but the proliferation of agile software development and lean product design has incentivized organizations to look for experienced individuals for UX roles, even those that are considered entry‐level. As a result, aspiring information professionals face a paradoxical situation in which they are required to have UX experience before they can gain UX experience. This article provides an assessment of one institution’s efforts to overcome this experience gap by offering opportunities for students to participate in three types of authentic client‐facing UX projects. Through surveys of students and clients served over four academic years, we provide a set of lessons learned and recommended best practices for incorporating project‐based learning opportunities into UX courses.