Research Reports

Just as Tom Hewett and colleagues reported in 1992, the field of HCI is continually changing and not surprisingly this impacts HCI education. Based on our analysis of 547 survey responses, 54 follow up interviews, 52 courses and 22 programs we offer the following high-level summary of key findings from this study:

• HCI is becoming increasingly multidisciplinary, with educators questioning the role and value of fields like anthropology and sociology in addition to computer science, psychology, design and engineering
• Students, professors and practitioners differ in what they consider to be the most important and the least important topics for HCI education
• The multidisciplinarity of HCI coupled with these different perspectives is disconcerting for some people, particularly students who sense a divide between what is most valued by academia and what is most valued by practitioners.
• There appear to be some differences between countries about what the most important and least important topics are in HCI Education, as indicated by survey data from primarily the US and Europe, and data from China, and Brazil. Results are preliminary and more work is needed on this topic.
• Teaching students about design, including the variety of quantitative and qualitative methods necessary to do HCI design and evaluate HCI design, remains a central priority, with some evidence to indicate that qualitative methods are gaining a stronger presence.
• While a few people call for a unified, singular curriculum reflecting an agreed upon canon of HCI research, methods and practices, most believe that flexibility in curriculum design is essential, even if a general ‘HCI sensibility’ can be agreed upon.

You can download the full report here.