Special Issue (12, 3): UX Pedagogy

Download a PDF of the full issue

Introduction to the special issue: UX Pedagogy: Stories and Practices from the Technical and Professional Communication Classroom

by Emma J. Rose and Heather Noel Turner

Abstract: In the introduction, we describe the exigence for the special issue and discuss how technical and professional communication (TPC) instructors teach user experience (UX) in ways that are unique, divergent, and innovative. Given the interdisciplinary nature of UX, sharing teaching stories as we do in this special issue dem-onstrates the multivocality of UX pedagogy and highlights the unique perspectives TPC instructors have to offer.

Cultivating Empathic Engineering Design through UX Pedagogy: Challenges and Insights

by Ashley Rea & Akshata Balghare

Abstract: This article reports on a study about design thinking pedagogy in technical communication courses taken by engineering students. The study suggests that design thinking pedagogy can foster engineering students’ empathy for users, particularly their ability to recognize the feelings, knowledge, and perspectives of others. However, its findings reinforce the difficulty faced when encouraging students’ societal-level empathy and the limitations of empathy. While engineering students may struggle to transfer user empathy to courses in their major, this study found that engineering students believe design thinking has relevance to their future careers. This article offers teaching strategies and project ideas for technical and professional communication instructors to facilitate students’ ability to transfer user empathy to their disciplines.

17 Students, 1 Project: Design Thinking Pedagogy for a Large-Scale UX Community/Classroom Partnership

by Allegra W. Smith & Courtney D. Ray

Abstract: This teaching case applies design thinking to a large-scale client project in a technical and professional communication (TPC) class. Using the 5-step design thinking process (“empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test”) over 8 weeks, the students in an upper-division TPC course developed social media content and strategy for a statewide public relations campaign. The two authors, the instructing faculty and a senior student who served as project manager, illuminate how iterative design thinking, as a UX pedagogical practice, can help students set boundaries around ill-defined problems; mirror workplace collaboration to contribute to professional development; and build a toolkit for exercising agency and creativity as researchers, writers, and designers.

Balancing Methodological Openness and Control in TPC-UX Pedagogy

by Paul Thompson Hunter

Abstract: This experience report describes a six-week unit at the intersection of technical and professional communication and user experience design (TPC-UX). Drawing on the work of Patricia Sullivan and Thomas Kent, it argues for a paralogic hermeneutic approach to TPC-UX pedagogy and illustrates how the Double Diamond design process can be used to scaffold assignments and create methodological balance. It also describes how commonplace TPC assignments—such as the technology tutorial—can be reframed according to user experience methods. Details about readings and deliverables are included.

Voices from The Void: Teaching User Experience as Racial Storytelling in TPC

by Jerrice Renita Donelson

Abstract: This article discusses a newly created method of UX journey mapping—User Experience as Racial Storytelling (UXRS)—designed to centralize Black user narratives in design thinking, and the teaching implications as a Black woman non-tenure track (NTT) online technical and professional communication (TPC) instructor. Revisiting an assigned group activity in a synchronous online technical writing course for engineers at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), this essay will share pedagogical approaches of user experience as TPC pedagogy used to scaffold this method of racial storytelling as an anti-racist practice to adapt a social justice framework. This essay suggests UXRS can aid engineering students’ perspective of inclusive design.

An Experience Report on the Opportunities and Challenges of a Community-Engaged User Experience (CEUX) Pedagogy for a Masters-level Course

by Sidouane Patcha & Sarah Read

Abstract: In this experience report, we share our approach to a Community-Engaged User Experience (CEUX) (Lee et al., 2023) pedagogy for a graduate-level technical writing research methods course in a traditional English department at Portland State University. We narrate the institutional context and history of the course and two sections of the course with different community partners: the Spring 2022 collaboration with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) focused on the state’s COVID-19 response websites and the Spring 2023 collaboration with the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) focused on OHSU’s main website and its Spanish and Russian microsites. We discuss the opportunities and challenges of each instance of the course and of our variation of a “one-to-many” model for CEUX.

Teaching Liberatory Design

by Emily K. Johnson

Abstract: This experience report describes a fully online graduate course on user-centered design that was designed to scaffold self-regulated learning and then redesigned to follow Anaissie et al.’s 2021 iteration of the Liberatory Design process. The pivot to Liberatory Design helped strengthen the self-regulated learning scaffolding, as each phase of the Liberatory Design process includes the processes of noticing, reflecting, and seeing the system. This article describes the prompts incorporated into major assignments, student perceptions, lessons learned, and the ways that Liberatory Design and self-regulated learning prompting can be used throughout the user-centered design process to improve the work of designers.

Interactive UX: Building and Testing for Accessibility with Design Systems

by Adam Strantz

Design systems provide a useful approach for TPC instructors looking to teach students to design and build accessible digital products. This experience report presents a teaching unit on using design systems to introduce accessibility to students. Using the Bootstrap design system, accessibility is threaded throughout the design process and provides a grounded approach for integrating accessible design into the UX classroom. Readers will come away with an outline of the teaching unit, accompanying materials for teaching that unit, and student examples user-tested for accessibility. The author concludes on a reflection on teaching the unit and offers advice for readers looking to implement a similar unit in their own courses.

Building Empathy through Classroom and Community Integration in a Multidisciplinary Engineering Design Program

by Rachel Atherton & Patricia Brackin

Abstract: In this experience report, we share our strategies for scaffolding and supporting instruction in empathy in a first-year Engineering Design studio course. Empathy is a key component of UX and design, but as Tham argued, it is a difficult skill that requires practice and critical application. Community engagement scholars have long argued that community-engaged projects help foster that empathy. Our teaching case will show how emphasizing content knowledge about user groups and creating an empathetic classroom environment impacts student designers’ ability to empathize in the design process.

Localizing Labor-based Contract Grading for a Community-engaged UX Course

by Mathew Gomes

Despite scholarly alignments between user experience (UX) principles and contract grading, further accounts and studies of grading in UX courses are needed. My self-study of a UX course found that labor-based contract grading helped de-center instructor and peer evaluation and foreground user, client, and stakeholder priorities in community-engaged work, and that it supported engagement in a process of connected UX activities. However, I was also challenged to accommodate flexible UX processes and develop a course engagement model that maximized access to UX process opportunities. I conclude with a heuristic to guide the design of grading models for UX courses.