Human-computer Interaction Education Research Articles

Exploring the Role of AI in UX Research

Presently, artificial intelligence (AI) is primarily utilized in user experience (UX) research for handling routine tasks like text conversion (e.g., transcription, survey preparation) to manage large volumes of data efficiently. However, its potential as a collaborative partner in generating ideas and insights remains largely untapped, possibly due to the limited AI education among UX researchers. There is a recognized need to enhance AI literacy among Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) students to effectively utilize AI tools in UX research for an AI-driven future. Despite its growing importance, the integration of AI literacy into HCI curricula remains insufficient. This study aims to explore AI’s potential in addressing current challenges in UX research and assess UX researchers’ readiness to adopt AI tools. Through in-depth interviews with five early-career UX researchers, it examined their experiences, challenges, and perspectives on integrating AI. Thematic analysis of the interview data uncovers insights, revealing that AI has significant potential to overcome challenges in collecting, interpreting, and synthesizing qualitative data, as well as in translating user needs into design concepts. The findings are intended to inform strategies for incorporating AI literacy into HCI education, aligning with industry demands for AI-enabled expertise in UX design.

Beyond the individual: The regulation and negotiation of socioemotional practices across a learning ecosystem

ABSTRACT Background In this paper, we extend theories of group cognition and regulation to examine how regulation occurs as part of a learning ecosystem. We examine our instructional approach, Embedded Design, that uses Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) as a conduit for students to make sense of their sociotechnical world and the ways people design everyday interaction around technology. Methods Our research questions centered on identifying (RQ1) the types of problems that require students’ collective regulation, . Our population included learners aged 8-12 enrolled in a play-based after school HCI design club. Using micro-analytic techniques, we examined the HCI design processes of four teams over nine sessions and four learners over two years. Findings We identified the most common problems students encountered, how regulation and negotiation played out across different levels of analysis, what types of learning occurred as participants worked to improve collaborative processes over time, and the role that technology played in the process. Contribution We end the paper by proposing a model of how nested collective knowledge building processes evolve over time and discuss the implications of our findings for K-12 HCI education.

Experience-Based Constructionism as a Basis for HCI Education: A Case Study

As new technologies constantly change what we understand as a computer, Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) educators need to stay updated and prepare their students to work with an ever-growing number of socio-technical situations. This phenomenon constitutes a challenge for HCI syllabuses and practices, demanding diversified approaches to HCI education. In this article, we articulate Papert’s constructionism with Dewey’s theory of experience to propose an experience-based constructionism approach to practices in HCI education. We illustrate our approach in a case study with 55 computing undergraduate students engaged in the design and construction of open-ended, physical interactive artworks. Nine interactive artifacts were created. The students have shown an effective experience with our approach, reporting an expanded view of HCI, and demonstrating competence in appropriating new methods and instruments, suggesting the effectiveness of our approach to HCI education. Results of this work may encourage other HCI educators and practitioners to experience the proposed approach in their specific contexts.

Project-based learning in human–computer interaction: a service‐dominant logic approach

PurposeThis study aims to propose a service-dominant logic (S-DL)-informed framework for teaching innovation in the context of human–computer interaction (HCI) education involving large industrial projects.Design/methodology/approachThis study combines S-DL from the field of marketing with experiential and constructivist learning to enable value co-creation as the primary method of connecting diverse actors within the service ecology. The approach aligns with the current conceptualization of central university activities as a triad of research, education and innovation.FindingsThe teaching framework based on the S-DL enabled ongoing improvements to the course (a project-based, bachelor’s-level HCI course in the computer science department), easier management of stakeholders and learning experiences through students’ participation in real-life projects. The framework also helped to provide an understanding of how value co-creation works and brought a new dimension to HCI education.Practical implicationsThe proposed framework and the authors’ experience described herein, along with examples of projects, can be helpful to educators designing and improving project-based HCI courses. It can also be useful for partner companies and organizations to realize the potential benefits of collaboration with universities. Decision-makers in industry and academia can benefit from these findings when discussing approaches to addressing sustainability issues.Originality/valueWhile HCI has successfully contributed to innovation, HCI education has made only moderate efforts to include innovation as part of the curriculum. The proposed framework considers multiple service ecosystem actors and covers a broader set of co-created values for the involved partners and society than just learning benefits.

How, Why, and with Whom Do User Experience (UX) Practitioners Communicate? Implications for HCI Education

ABSTRACT 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.

TOWARDS THE HCI LIVING CURRICULUM

Abstract –The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) has been supporting research into HCI education for many years, most actively in the last six years. At its CHI2014 conference, a workshop on developing a new Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) living curriculum was held, building on three years of research and collaboration. We believe the time is now right to design and build the proposed HCI living curriculum. This paper proposes the preliminary framework for a concrete active social network of HCI scholars and educators, sharing and collaborating to develop course outlines, curricula, and teaching materials. In particular, this paper presents the use cases and design requirements of the HCI living curriculum, based on data collected from HCI educators and practitioners. Future initiatives to move the designforward by prototyping a first version of the living curriculum are also discussed.

What to Teach in HCI?

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has been rapidly changing from the design and evaluation of interfaces into the enhancement of general human values. Because of this dramatic change, there is a gap between what has been taught in HCI and what is (or will be) required in the HCI field. In the present paper I describe the status quo of HCI education as domain science and then, I argue that we had better focus more on human sides in HCI education: emotions and embodied cognition, socio-cultural interactions, and theoretical and design research approaches. This will enable HCI students to be independent researchers who can envision creating an interspace (a new eco-system), beyond just designing a fashionable interface.

Creative Multimodal Learning Environments and Blended Interaction for Problem-Based Activity in HCI Education

This exploratory case study aims to examine how students benefit from a multimodal learning environment while they engage in collaborative problem-based activity in a Human Computer Interaction (HCI) university course. For 12 weeks, 30 students, in groups of 5-7 each, participated in weekly face-to-face meetings and online interactions. Students’ selfreports and tutor’ observations showed that overall students benefited from the multimodal learning environment while they engaged in blended interactions across physical and digital tools and across collocated and networked learning spaces. With respect to tool use, it was found that the downward pointing projector and Facebook were used in all phases of problem based activity, while portable devices for record keeping were mainly used in progress evaluation and reflection phases.

Rethinking HCI Education for Design: Problem-Based Learning and Virtual Worlds at an HCI Design Studio

The practice of teaching and learning human–computer interaction (HCI) design has to develop its own approaches that balance method and technology use with reflective and situated practice. This article presents our HCI design studio course that makes a combined use of constructivist pedagogies and virtual worlds aiming to aid students critically review and reflect on the use of related methods and technologies in design and to cultivate more general skills like self-directed learning, intrinsic motivation, and critical thinking. Our HCI design studio course can be thought of as an iterative and incremental teaching and learning process that blends HCI methods, design practice, and technology between a real and a virtual design studio. The course introduces problem-based learning to the pedagogies of project-based learning and studio-based learning currently employed in most HCI design studios. The positive student responses and our reflection and experiences focusing on a number of challenges for further implementation are also outlined.

The Design Enterprise: Rethinking the HCI Education Paradigm

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).

Design, science, and engineering topics?

Reacting to challenges that have been observed in human-computer interaction (HCI) education, as well as the multidisciplinary design, science, and engineering underpinnings, we investigate a pedagogical approach based on case methods. Our study of various case method techniques in an undergraduate HCI class provides insights into challenges that can be expected in the employment of case methods, student learning outcomes, and considerations for HCI curriculum planning. In general, case methods show great promise with a wide variety of topics, and we present broad recommendations for future work that will improve integration of HCI professional practice, research, and education.

A pattern approach to interaction design

To create successful interactive systems, user interface designers need to cooperate with developers and application domain experts in an interdisciplinary team. These groups, however, usually lack a common terminology to exchange ideas, opinions and values. This paper presents an approach that uses pattern languages to capture this knowledge in software development, human-computer interaction (HCI) and the application domain. A formal, domain-independent definition of design patterns allows for computer support without sacrificing readability, and pattern use is integrated into the usability engineering life cycle. As an example, experience from building an award-winning interactive music exhibit was turned into a pattern language, which was then used to inform follow-up projects and support HCI education.