[ATTW-L] Introducing UX Research to Undergrads

[Emma J. Rose]

Adding on to this already incredible list of suggestions.

For usability testing, I find Barnum's 2010 text Usability Testing
Essentials incredible useful and students appreciate it the very clear way
it breaks down the method(s). But I use it for a class that exclusively
focuses on usability testing.

For UX, I also teach a similar class: multi-disciplinary, multi-major,
different levels, with community-engaged projects (such a fun class to
teach!).

We use UX Team of One by Leah Buley for a good process approach that talks
about both how to do UX as a generalist and also how to get support and
buy-in for the practice (which is especially helpful when working with
community partners who might be new to UX). I also use the Sketching User
Experiences Workbook by Greenberg et al, for lots of good exercises in
practicing design. Students have responded positively to both texts.

Good luck and reach out if you want to chat more!

------

*Emma Rose, PhD*
*pronouns: she/her*

Assistant Professor
Writing Studies & Technical Communication
University of Washington | Tacoma

Adjunct Assistant Professor
Human Centered Design & Engineering
University of Washington | Seattle
ejrose at uw.edu



On Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 6:36 AM Hendrickson, Brian <bhendrickson at rwu.edu>
wrote:

> Dear List,
>
> I'm curious to know what resources you use to teach undergrads (esp.
> non-majors) to conduct web usability research, or UX research in general.
>
> I've mostly found texts that discuss general usability principles, such as
> handbooks for general audiences (e.g. Krug 2014) or introductory TC
> textbooks, but that don't go into much depth on methods. Barnum's (2002) *Usability
> Testing and Research* seems to be the most thorough instructional text on
> methodology we have in TC, but 16 years is a long time ago. I may be
> running up against what Chong (2016) identifies as a lack of explicitly
> pedagogical texts in TC concerning usability.
>
> I'd love to hear from you if you have used these or other texts, and to
> what degree of success.
>
> Some context: This spring, as part of an intermediate level special topics
> course I'm calling Community-based Writing in a Digital World, I'm taking
> on a community engagement project that involves developing web
> content/architecture for a police department's community relations bureau,
> which will further involve conducting UX research with community and police
> stakeholders to ensure that the web space facilitates partnership and trust
> building. Because it satisfies a gen ed requirement, I am likely to get
> students of all majors and at various levels of degree completion, which is
> why I'm pushing for very "usable" texts.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Brian Hendrickson, PhD
> Assistant Professor
> Dept of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition
> Roger Williams University
> bhendrickson at rwu.edu
> Pronouns: he/him/his
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