[ATTW-L] Introducing UX Research to Undergrads

Fri Oct 12 16:32:43 UTC 2018

This is such a great list! It’s got me wondering if there’s already a bibliography somewhere or if this would be a good start for one. This semester, I’m using Baxter et al.’s _Understanding Your Users_, at Liza Potts’ suggestion, and it’s really great. The early chapters give a thorough overview of the role of UX throughout the design cycle and later chapters focus on individual research methods in a way that’s super helpful for students developing testing materials for the first time.

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From: ATTW-L <attw-l-bounces at attw.org> on behalf of Carly Finseth <carlyfinseth at boisestate.edu>
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2018 8:07 AM
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Subject: Re: [ATTW-L] Introducing UX Research to Undergrads

My graduate students enjoy Rubin & Chisnell's Handbook of Usability Testing, while my undergrads prefer Unger & Chandler's A Project Guide to UX Design. Both audiences love Horton & Quesenbery's A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences, if you're looking to include information on accessibility and UDL through the lens of UX. Another option could be Bowles & Box's Undercover User Experience Design, which I've found to be very accessible and readable (very quick read), especially for non-tech comm majors and/or students totally new to UX, both grad and undergrad. The lens is through doing UX on the job.

Hope this helps.

Best,

Carly

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On Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 8:40 AM, Tharon Howard <tharon at clemson.edu<mailto:tharon at clemson.edu>> wrote:
You might also want to check out Tracy Bridgeford’s  _Teaching Professional and Technical Communication: A Practicum in a Book_ which was just released a couple of weeks ago. It’s an edited collection which as several chapters on how to incorporate UX thinking and usability testing into undergraduate TC courses.  Tharon

From: ATTW-L [mailto:attw-l-bounces at attw.org<mailto:attw-l-bounces at attw.org>] On Behalf Of Michelle McMullin
Cc: attw-l at attw.org<mailto:attw-l at attw.org>
Subject: Re: [ATTW-L] Introducing UX Research to Undergrads

Graves and Graves Strategic Guide to Technical Communication does a good job of breaking down methods. I’ve used it in undergraduate classes a couple of times.

Michelle

On Oct 12, 2018, at 9:34 AM, Hendrickson, Brian <bhendrickson at rwu.edu<mailto: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<mailto:bhendrickson at rwu.edu>
Pronouns: he/him/his
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