creating curricular partnerships with ux practitioners
DESCRIPTION
In this presentation for SIGDOC 2013 (http://sigdoc.org), I reflect on heuristics and methods for building industry partnerships around a graduate-level class in UX design.TRANSCRIPT
G U I S E P P E G E T TO
E A S T C A R O L I N A U N I V E R S I T Y
G E T TO G @ E C U . E D U
Creating Curricular Partnerships with UX
Practitioners
What I’ll Cover
Framework for the Class
Industry Partners
Networking for Partnership
Sustaining the Collaboration
Framework for the Class
An online, grad-level class that:
1) Introduces technical communication students to researching
and doing UX design
2) Introduces best practices in UX from industry
Ideal paths from the class:
UX internships
UX research and design projects
UX knowledge useful in other tech comm positions
Framework for the Class, cont’d
Sources of UX knowledge:
Research findings and best practices from tech comm
E.g. Albers, Grabill, Hart-Davidson, Potts, Salvo, Spinuzzi, Sun,
etc.
Industry books on best practices
E.g. Courage and Baxter, Garrett, Sharon, Nielsen, Ratcliffe and
McNeill, etc.)
Framework for the Class, cont’d
Sources of UX knowledge, cont’d:
Industry mags and blogs
E.g. UX Magazine, User Experience, Smashing Magazine, Boxes
and Arrows, etc.
Tools and resources from industry partners
E.g. The Nerdery and UserZoom
Framework for the Class, cont’d
Sources of UX knowledge, cont’d:
My own research into and practice with UX design methods
E.g. contextual inquiry, field studies, card sorting, usability testing,
user research, user-centered design, participatory design,
information architecture
Industry Partners
The Nerdery
Why I chose them
Their Apprenticeship Program:
http://www.uxcollaborative.org/partners/
What they’re providing
A baseline listing of methods for their AP
Business Discovery, User Research, IA, IDx,
Evaluation, Visual Design
Industry Partners, cont’d
The Nerdery, cont’d
What they’re providing
Advice on curriculum design
A guest lecture for the class on what they look for in AP
candidates
Industry Partners, cont’d
UserZoom
Why I chose them
Their University Program: http://www.uxcollaborative.org/partners/
What they’re providing
Free access to a robust, industry standard tool for UX research
Free training and technical support for the tool for both students
and myself
Networking for Partnership
Think about utility
What’s the value-add to your class or program?
Is the prospective partner an organization you want to affiliate
with?
What about their mission matches up with your own?
Think about buy-in
What’s in it for the industry partner?
What will they get in return?
Sustaining the Collaboration
Offer to facilitate feedback
Students: have them do a reflection on their experiences with
the partner’s tools or resources
Partners: put something in front of them from the students and
ask them to respond to it, or at least give students a chance to
ask them questions through a guest lecture
You: what about the collaboration was successful and what
wasn’t and why?
Sustaining the Collaboration, cont’d
Don’t be afraid to say no to a second collaboration
Don’t be afraid to ask for something different for a
second collaboration
For More Information
My Program: http://www.ecu.edu/english/tpc/
My Portfolio: http://guiseppegetto.com
This presentation is accessible via Slideshare, which
is linked to from my portfolio site