Teaching Human-Centered Design in CSE Programs

Many CSE programs have begun to mandate a human-centered design (HCD) course as part of degree requirements. Rather than abstracting out messy humans to a single generic 'user', HCD requires solution designers to use their innate creativity and empathy to work alongside a varied group of people who will be most impacted by a new system. However, many CSE students tend to keep a narrowed focus on system-only behavior and the human inter-relation skills necessary to do HCD well may not come naturally to CSE students. Within HCD projects, this becomes a problem given that project teams consist not just of designers, developers and project managers, but also increasingly of core users, in a co-design or participatory design process. Figuring out ways to get students to define a problem completely, account for human needs in solution ideas, and work alongside actual users can be a struggle for many in the CSE education field. This BOF is intended to share ideas for how to appropriately teach the mindset and methods skillset of HCD to typical CSE students. This session is directed at the sharing and collaborating around teaching resources, techniques, in-class activities and assignments for HCD education. Handouts.