Pedagogical Strategies for Reflection in Project-based HCI Education with End Users

As HCI pedagogy research grows, so too does an emerging set of evidence-based teaching and curricular recommendations. Yet, few studies have implemented and examined these recommendations in the classroom. In this paper, we present a Research Through Design investigation of a studio-based HCI course, which was revised based on HCI education literature. Drawing on reflection surveys, video recordings of student-led user sessions, final project artifacts, and student interviews, we explore how students responded to key educational changes, the strategies that supported and hindered their reflective practices, and how reflection afforded new student insights. Our findings highlight the utility of video-based reflection exercises to support student learning in designing and running user sessions, the importance of multi-faceted reflection prompts, and how students noticed moments of inclusion and exclusion by attending to users’ non-verbal cues. Additionally, we empirically demonstrate the importance of implementing and studying HCI education research recommendations in the classroom.