Evolution of Design Competence

in UX Practice!

COLIN M. GRAY Indiana University

INTRO

PhD Candidate in Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University

Practicing graphic and interactive designer

My research focuses on design education and how pedagogy and practice can be more strongly linked

THE CONTRIBUTION

Step towards an understanding of UX competence

How junior UX designers relate to their workplace

Linkages between pedagogy and practice

GROUNDING VIEWS OF COMPETENCE

System of abilities applied in context (Rychen & Salganik, 2003)

–Weinert, 2001

“a roughly specialized system of abilities, proficiencies, or skills

that are necessary or sufficient to reach a specific goal [that] can be applied to individual dispositions

or to the distribution of such dispositions within a social group

or an institution.”

GROUNDING VIEWS OF COMPETENCE

System of abilities applied in context (Rychen & Salganik, 2003)

Design ability and reflection (Arvola & Artman, 2008; Schön, 1983)

Expertise (Cross, 2004; Dreyfus, 1981; Lawson, 2004)

Learnable and teachable (Trier, 2001)

SO WHAT? …FRAMING THIS STUDY

No set of UX competencies exists

Pedagogy must adapt to changes in the market

This study focuses on the liminal space where a student becomes a practitioner

METHOD | PARTICIPANTS

11 PARTICIPANTS

5 STUDENTS 5 EARLY PROFESSIONALS} }

completing an internship

taking their first UX job

METHOD | DATA COLLECTION

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

SURVEY + CRITICAL INTERVIEW

}

weekly survey

monthlycritical interview

METHOD | ANALYSIS

111 SURVEY RESPONSES 23 INTERVIEWS+

QUALITATIVE QUANTITATIVE}thematic analysis

}

scatterplot

FINDINGS & DISCUSSION

FINDINGS | INTERNS

W1 W5 W9

10

8

6

4

FINDINGS | EARLY PROFESSIONALS

W1 W5 W9

10

8

6

4

FINDINGS | EMERGENT THEMES

Tool/representational knowledge

Dealing with complexity

Vocabulary/language/communication

Design leadership

Internal/external upskilling

Reconciling corporate reality/culture

Designerly identity

FINDINGS | EMERGENT THEMES

Tool/representational knowledge

Dealing with complexity

Vocabulary/language/communication

Design leadership

Internal/external upskilling

Reconciling corporate reality/culture

Designerly identity

–Intern, Week 7

“I've learned to stop worrying about what software I'm using

and leverage what I know.”

TOOL/REPRESENTATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

–Early Professional, Week 8

“They sort of test the limit of what our ‘nice’ designs do once they get thrown into a more complex and outlier situation. It's a lot about

making a judgment call and keeping up with consistency.”

DEALING WITH COMPLEXITY

–Intern, Week 3

“We had a phone call with a client today. We were briefed before to only speak if ‘teed’ up to speak.

That is such an abrasive thought for a HUMAN computer interaction designer.”

DESIGNERLY IDENTITY

DISCUSSION

Competence in UX as:

Fluid

Personally and organizationally situated

Bound to context of use

Based on the identity and life experience of the individual designer

DISCUSSION |FLUIDITY OF COMPETENCE

Corporate culture was the center of the beginning UX designer’s experience

Designers experienced a decreasing reliance on tool knowledge, focusing more on soft skills

Movement to self-directed learning

Co-constructing a professional identity

DISCUSSION | IDENTITY

Students actively evaluated their own identity in relation to their work environment

They had to reconcile inconsistencies between pedagogy and authentic practice, including:

what it means to be a competent UX designer

how their identity is shaped by their work environment

IMPLICATIONS & FUTURE WORK

HCI pedagogy linked to professional practice

UX competencies and individual design identity

Larger scale work

THANK YOUErik Stolterman Martin A. Siegel Omar Sosa-Tzec

Jordan Beck Gary Dickson

!NSF Grant #1115532