The Design Enterprise: Rethinking the HCI Education Paradigm

Abstract

Introduction Every discipline has its own evolutionary path upon which its practitioners should reflect to better assess the future. Having come of age, the field of human-computer interaction (HCI) is no exception. As such, it is appropriate to ask some fundamental questions regarding the development of HCI education and its impact on design and deployment of technologies that increasingly transform our lives at home and at work. In the conclusion of their paper, “Distributed Cognition: Toward a New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research,” Hollan, Hutchins, and Kirsh1 state that for HCI to advance in the new millennium, “We need to better understand the emerging dynamic of interaction in which the focus task is no longer confined to the desktop, but reaches into a complex, networked world of information and computer-mediated interactions.” They argue that, for people to pursue their goals in collaboration in a social and material world, they will require a “new theoretical basis and an integrated framework for research.” 2 The claim made by Hollan, Hutchins, and Kirsh3 questions whether or not educators are attending to the kind of curriculum development that will allow for the emergence of a new generation of interaction designers4 who understand the dynamics of sociobehavioral contexts in which interactive systems might best be built. Echoing this call, Carroll5 expressed his concern about the next generation of HCI professionals who, he suggested, may have little or no understanding of HCI theory as a multidisciplinary science. The multidisciplinary development of HCI over the last twenty years suggests a further need for advanced learning models from scholars who are willing to resolve the current tension between traditional course content and the role of design in the strategic planning and synthesis of product creation.6 Pedagogical models employed by many HCI and design programs will risk becoming increasingly short-sighted if they do not provide students with knowledge domains that can account for understanding design, social context, and business strategies in addition to computing. A curriculum that delivers all these can only be achieved through a rethinking of HCI pedagogy by which students learn the theory and best practice of design as a unified approach to 1 J. Hollan, E. Hutchins, and D. Kirsh, “Distributed Cognition: Toward a New Foundation for Human-Computer Interaction Research,” ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction 7:2 (2000): 174–196. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Interaction design (ID): The phrase “interaction design” has evolved out of a growing need to recognize the role that “design” plays in the development of emerging technologies. ID includes a special consideration for the complexity of the features, functions, and capabilities that newer technologies bring to the user. Although interaction design draws upon the traditional theories and practices of HCI and interface design, it clearly emphasizes human-centered design as the primary model upon which to secure the goals and preferences most desired by users. Hence, designers often consider interaction design as a discipline that places more emphasis on user experience (referred to as “user experience design”) and the processes of designing for both human and system behavior to better solve interaction problems that users confront on a daily basis. As opposed to traditional HCI professionals, who hold degrees in computer science and cognitive psychology, interaction designers are often from traditional backgrounds in visual communication and industrial design. In this paper, the author is using the term HCI in the broadest sense to speak to both HCI and interaction design educators and professionals. 5 HCI Models, Theories, and Frameworks: Toward a New Multidisciplinary Science, J. M. Carroll, ed. (San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann, 2003).