What do We Teach When We Say We Teach UX?

A Study of the Practices of TPC Instructors

Authors

  • Heather Noel Turner Santa Clara University
  • Emma J. Rose University of Washington Tacoma

Keywords:

Curriculum,, Pedagogy,, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, User experience, UX

Abstract

Although programs in TPC are well positioned to prepare students for careers in user experience (UX), teaching UX can be challenging due to its breadth and complexity. Despite these challenges, many TPC instructors teach UX with little support or training. To understand and improve how TPC instructors teach UX, this article considers the research questions: 1) What do TPC teachers do when they say they teach UX? What are their definitions, approaches, and activities? 2) What are the structures or constraints that influence UX pedagogical choices? Triangulating data from 80 questionnaire responses, 22 interviews, and a corpus of 53 teaching artifacts, we respond to a long-standing call for pedagogical scholarship on UX with evidence-based practices for instructors and programs. Findings demonstrate the variability and flexibility
of teaching practices including how instructors define UX, articulate their expertise, and embed UX into their assignments, courses, and programs. We also demonstrate and discuss the structures and
constraints that influence UX pedagogical choices. We conclude with implications for instructors, programs, and the field.

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Author Biographies

Heather Noel Turner, Santa Clara University

Heather Noel Turner is an Assistant Professor and Director of Internships in the Department of English at Santa Clara University (SCU). Her research interests include User Experience (UX), pedagogy, design
methodologies, and rhetorical approaches for data visualization. At SCU, Dr. Turner serves as founder and director of the User-Experience Research and Writing Lab and as a member of the Digital Humanities
Working Group Advisory Council.

Emma J. Rose, University of Washington Tacoma

Emma J. Rose is an Associate Professor in Writing Studies and a core faculty member in the Global Innovation and Design Lab at the University of Washington Tacoma she also holds an adjunct appointment in Human-Centered Design & Engineering at University of Washington Seattle. Her research is motivated by a commitment to social justice to engage in questions about how technologies are designed and who is doing the designing. Prior to her academic career, she spent over a decade working as a user experience consultant. Her current research focuses on UX pedagogy.

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Published

2022-11-19

How to Cite

Turner, H. N., & Rose, E. J. (2022). What do We Teach When We Say We Teach UX? A Study of the Practices of TPC Instructors. Programmatic Perspectives, 13(1), 61–102. Retrieved from https://programmaticperspectives.cptsc.org/index.php/jpp/article/view/11

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2022): Programmatic Perspectives

Section

Research Articles