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User Experience Design Learning Path

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31–39 of 39 posts

Re: User Experience Design Learning Path

#31
I'm a little confused about what I would be learning here. What exactly are the "tools, methods and frameworks" which is being taught, and are there any prerequisites before I can jump in?

It looks like the only way I can look at the curriculum is by joining sliderule...which I don't want to do, yet.

Re: User Experience Design Learning Path

#32
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree somewhat, however I wouldn't place a large emphasis on it at the first section... maybe section 2 or 3. There are some parts that are valuable to keep in mind all the time from HCI, but I don't think the hard numerical science is really salient for most people looking to break into the field. Find the threshold of academia vs practical application and stay firmly in the latter when sharing course materials.

Which parts of HCI do you think are the most important to include in a curriculum like this?

Fitt's law, Hicks' law. Accessibility for sure. Light Ergonomics, relating to the mediums (mobile and desktop, probably)

Re: User Experience Design Learning Path

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm betting you are on the HCI side and not the design side right? I'm a researcher, I know lots of HCI researchers, I know lots of designers, and the overlap in what the two do is so is slight. Most work on HCI is at the test, measure level, very much a science, while design is a different method from science in its own right. Is knowing some HCI useful for design? Sure, but necessary? The best designers I've worked…

> Most work on HCI is at the test, measure level, very much a science Most work on HCI was at the measure level. If you follow HCI research, you may notice a trend: lots of publications based on ethnographic methods, qualitative approaches and the like. HCI (as in "HCI academic research") is, nowadays, much closer (methodologically) to design thinking than to experimental psychology. > I'm betting you are on the HCI…

> lots of publications based on ethnographic methods, qualitative approaches and the like. HCI (as in "HCI academic research") is, nowadays, much closer (methodologically) to design thinking than to experimental psychology.

Just because HCI researchers are trying to do design doesn't mean they have mastered it yet. CHI also doesn't yet know how to handle work from real designers (vs. HCI researchers talking about what they think those designers should be doing). It is more of an aspiration for the community at this point; they haven't asserted much leadership in the field yet (in terms of practice).

> I do both. I work in the industry (UI design, front-end dev, evaluation) and I'm a PhD student.

Did you go to design school? Can you sketch? How about your storyboarding skills? What is your experience with color? Do you have a portfolio ready to show off at any moment? I know I sound harsh, and I'm not trying to say you aren't a real designer, but CS people who say they practice design rarely cross those lines above. I'm a CS researcher, not a designer, and my wife (visual/interaction designer, design school background) calls out my BS all the time.

> I guess you're right on this, at least in the academia. I do have the impression that most HCI researchers have a CS background. But, at least in my country, this is mostly because CS departments have much more funding to hire researchers than the others.

As far as I can tell, there is very little HCI content that is geared toward designers. Those HCI courses that pre-exist are all aimed at computer scientists; the designers in the meantime have their own programs (e.g. interaction design departments) that are quite separated from what the engineers are doing.

Re: User Experience Design Learning Path

#34
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which parts of HCI do you think are the most important to include in a curriculum like this?

Fitt's law, Hicks' law. Accessibility for sure. Light Ergonomics, relating to the mediums (mobile and desktop, probably)

Both Fitt's and Hicks' law were found in the 50s by experimental psychologists. They are hardly exclusive to HCI.

BTW, a good application of Hicks' law is in a book called "The psychology of menu selection: Designing cognitive control at the human/computer interface" (POMS) by Kent Norman. There is an online version:

http://lap.umd.edu/POMS/

Re: User Experience Design Learning Path

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most work on HCI is at the test, measure level, very much a science Most work on HCI was at the measure level. If you follow HCI research, you may notice a trend: lots of publications based on ethnographic methods, qualitative approaches and the like. HCI (as in "HCI academic research") is, nowadays, much closer (methodologically) to design thinking than to experimental psychology. > I'm betting you are on the HCI…

> lots of publications based on ethnographic methods, qualitative approaches and the like. HCI (as in "HCI academic research") is, nowadays, much closer (methodologically) to design thinking than to experimental psychology. Just because HCI researchers are trying to do design doesn't mean they have mastered it yet. CHI also doesn't yet know how to handle work from real designers (vs. HCI researchers talking about wha…

> Did you go to design school? Can you sketch? How about your storyboarding skills? What is your experience with color? Do you have a portfolio ready to show off at any moment? I know I sound harsh, and I'm not trying to say you aren't a real designer, but CS people who say they practice design rarely cross those lines above. I'm a CS researcher, not a designer, and my wife (visual/interaction designer, design school background) calls out my BS all the time.

I'm not a computer scientist, nor a engineer. I graduated from a Comm. & Arts department, with a degree in a "hybrid" between Comm. Science, Design and IT. I do have a portfolio in UI design, I have a little experience in print medium, a solid understanding of colors and typography. I can sketch but I'm a lousy, lousy drawer. I also developed (and do the tutoring) on a small course in UX design, which my company gives to new trainees (engineers, most of the time).

I guess you pictured me as someone from CS with a interest in UI design. I'm not. I'm a UI designer and front-end developer. I'm also a researcher and I do user testing, which is why I also know HCI (and also why I can see the discipline as the foundation of IxD, even though most of the time it isn't acknowledged as such).

> As far as I can tell, there is very little HCI content that is geared toward designers. Those HCI courses that pre-exist are all aimed at computer scientists; the designers in the meantime have their own programs (e.g. interaction design departments) that are quite separated from what the engineers are doing.

I partially agree with you, here. Most HCI courses do exist in CS/engineering departments (at least, in my country). And - what is worst - they're taught by CS with little to zero experience in HCI. However, the interaction design programs - the ones geared towards designers - they do teach HCI. Maybe with a different label, maybe the teachers don't attribute the contents to HCI & HCI authors, but it is HCI nonetheless. Of course, the emphasis is totally different, and they focus a lot more on prototyping

Re: User Experience Design Learning Path

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> lots of publications based on ethnographic methods, qualitative approaches and the like. HCI (as in "HCI academic research") is, nowadays, much closer (methodologically) to design thinking than to experimental psychology. Just because HCI researchers are trying to do design doesn't mean they have mastered it yet. CHI also doesn't yet know how to handle work from real designers (vs. HCI researchers talking about wha…

> Did you go to design school? Can you sketch? How about your storyboarding skills? What is your experience with color? Do you have a portfolio ready to show off at any moment? I know I sound harsh, and I'm not trying to say you aren't a real designer, but CS people who say they practice design rarely cross those lines above. I'm a CS researcher, not a designer, and my wife (visual/interaction designer, design school…

Fair enough, I'm sorry I had the wrong view. But you said you are a PhD student now...in what kind of department? CS? PhDs are very rare in design.

Re: User Experience Design Learning Path

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did you go to design school? Can you sketch? How about your storyboarding skills? What is your experience with color? Do you have a portfolio ready to show off at any moment? I know I sound harsh, and I'm not trying to say you aren't a real designer, but CS people who say they practice design rarely cross those lines above. I'm a CS researcher, not a designer, and my wife (visual/interaction designer, design school…

Fair enough, I'm sorry I had the wrong view. But you said you are a PhD student now...in what kind of department? CS? PhDs are very rare in design.

It's a joint degree between my alma mater (Comm. & Arts) and a Arts & Humanities department from another university (focused on the information sciences and journalism).

Think "social science approaches to technologically mediated phenomena".

Re: User Experience Design Learning Path

#39
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a little confused--is the first video in the 3rd section ("intro to the design of everyday things") really an entire course? If so, i think the time-to-complete estimate (1 hr) should be changed...If it's not, it'd be great if the particular videos to be watched were noted.

Seems like "Design of Everyday Things" is a really short course, with only 3 Chapters and each video of 1-2 minutes. The total video lecture time for the entire course could well be ~1 hour. The project (timebank) is what will take more time and the estimate for that in Section 3.3 is 8 hours.

The course Design of Everyday Things is short. There are around 5 short videos is each of the three sections, but there are exercises too.
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