Design, New Media, and Human-Computer Interactions

Introduction

In today’s information society, the workforce requires individuals to be adaptive to changing work demands and unforeseen challenges, work collaboratively, think critically, make reasoned decisions, and resolve fluid and ill-defined problems (Huq & Gilbert, 2017; Lee & Hannafin, 2016). In many ways, critical thinking and problem-solving can be manifested in design education’s practice-based curricula structured around projects. Nelson (2003), articulating similarities between problem-solving and designing, indicates that engaging students in problem-solving using design-oriented tasks can serve as a model of teaching and learning. Design schools, for example, have a longstanding custom of studio-based learning characterized by work in open-ended design domains, creative thinking about design problems and “real-world problem-solving, creation of design artifacts or prototypes, structured dialogue focused on critique of designs, and a presentation of designed artifacts (Koutsabasis & Vosinakis, 2012, p. 486). Many academic programs, such as Digital Media and Interactive design, unaffiliated with traditional schools of design offer design-oriented courses, minors, and even majors in subjects as visual and communication design, digital media design, information design, interactive design, or web design in which the traditions of practiced-based or problem-based learning may not be as strong or do not exist – but are applicable. Because of the applied or professional nature of these disciplines, industry often establishes the standard for practice in terms of processes, technologies, and software, which educational pedagogy attempts to emulate. To prepare students for industry professions, educators generally encourage collaborations between industry and education. Design oriented projects can be a worthwhile form of collaboration in which industry partners give students “real-world” design problems, resulting in positive learning outcomes. At the same time, educators must ensure that they ground these types of projects in research and theory of the disciplines. In programs such as Digital Media and Interactive design, teaching technologies (e.g., software) and modeling industry practices are worthwhile instructional objectives but should be balanced with theory and guiding principles. Pedagogy that focuses on software and the replication of industry designed artifacts potentially reduces design and the complexity of interaction to a minimum. Because of the dynamics of industry, it can be challenging to balance students’ need to understand industry practice with underlying research and theory and to ensure that practice compliments but does not suffuse the conceptual. Additionally, educators and students can add much value to these experiences and help foster industry relationships by emphasizing theory and research.

In the sections that follow immediately below, I present several issues facing practice-based courses, the predominant focus of learning software and emulating industry practice over foundational precepts rooted in design theory, digital media, and human-computer interaction.

In the remaining sections, I present an overview of a course project that has been run over several academic semesters. The overview presents three instructional approaches to the project beginning with a focus on software and replicating existing industry designed artifacts to an approach that emphasizes theory and research. I present several advantages of these approaches and discuss their relevance to enhancing education-industry collaborations.