Learning HCI Across Institutions, Disciplines and Countries: A Field Study of Cognitive Styles in Analytical and Creative Tasks

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is increasingly becoming a subject taught in universities around the world. However, little is known of the interactions of the HCI curriculum with students in different types of institutions and disciplines internationally. In order to explore these interactions, we studied the performance of HCI students in design, technology and business faculties in universities in UK, India, Namibia, Mexico and China who participated in a common set of design and evaluation tasks. We obtained participants’ cognitive style profiles based on Allinson and Hayes scale in order to gain further insights into their learning styles and explore any relation between these and performance. We found participants’ cognitive style preferences to be predominantly in the adaptive range, i.e. with combined analytical and intuitive traits, compared to normative data for software engineering, psychology and design professionals. We further identified significant relations between students’ cognitive styles and performance in analytical and creative tasks of a HCI professional individual. We discuss the findings in the context of the distinct backgrounds of the students and universities that participated in this study and the value of research that explores and promotes diversity in HCI education

User data spectrum theory: Collecting, interpreting, and implementing user data in organizations

Organizations interested in increasing their user experience (UX) capacity lack the tools they need to know how to do so. This dissertation addresses this challenge via three major research efforts: 1) the creation of User Data Spectrum theory and a User Data Spectrum survey for helping organizations better invest resources to grow their UX capacity, 2) a new UX method and model for organizations that want to capitalize on spoken words from end users called Rapid Meaningful Scenarios (RMS), and 3) a recommendation for UX education in response to the current ACM SIGCHI education Living Curriculum initiative. The User Data Spectrum work is based on 30 interviews and 110 survey responses from UX stakeholders across 120 companies. These data informed the theory as well as a factor analysis performed to identify the most relevant items in the User Data Spectrum survey. The Rapid Meaningful Scenarios methodology was developed based on iterative UX experience with a real-world organization and refined to aid UX professionals in creating structured results based on end users\u27 words. The UX education recommendation integrates experience with the HCI curriculum at Iowa State University and curriculum discussions within the SIGCHI community over the past 5 years. The overall contribution of this research is a set of tools that will enable UX professionals and organizations to better strategize how to increase their UX capacity

The differing profiles of the human-computer interaction professional: perceptions of practice, cognitive preferences and the impact on HCI education

At a time when there is increasing demand for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) skills, it becomes increasingly important that the curriculum is effective and relevant. This research aims to provide a better understanding of the professionals who work in the field of HCI. It extends previous studies by examining the different roles of HCI professionals in order to identify differences regarding cognitive preferences, background, what is valued, concerns and issues, and the potential impact of these upon curriculum design and delivery within the Higher Education sector. This study also extends technological frames theory by applying the framework to HCI practice. The literature review covers the history of HCI, the position of HCI within the software development lifecycle, HCI academic research and its relationship to practice, HCI practice and HCI education. It then discusses cognitive style research and the Cognitive Styles Index (CSI) and the Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire (OSIVQ), concluding with the social construction of technology and technological frames. This study follows a mixed methods approach adopting a pragmatic epistemological stance, collecting data by means of a survey which gathered demographic data and cognitive profiles. These were complemented by interviews which were analysed using the Template Analysis approach. iv Both the quantitative and the qualitative data highlight a number of differences between the roles of the professionals, and in particular between those who educate and those who are involved in practice. The interview findings also highlight inconsistences in what is valued, and indicate that HCI is not well understood outside of the HCI community. It appears that a dominant technological frame has not yet been achieved in the field of HCI, with particular incongruences noted between academia and practice. In particular, the interviews confirm the findings of the literature that the curriculum may not be meeting the needs of practice, and that there still exists a lack of consensus regarding terminology and processes. The discussion moves on to consider the implications for the curriculum discussing the need for more input from practice when designing the curriculum, the advantages of embedding HCI skills within the curriculum in order to address graduate attributes, and the need to be aware of role differences in order to offer appropriate academic advice to students