Abstract
The recent emergence of new undergraduate and graduate design programs with a focus specific to User Experience (UX) offers new opportunities to engage with the complexity of these educational practices. In this paper, we report on a series of ten interviews with students and faculty to describe cross-cultural connections between two UX-focused programs, one in China and one in the United States. Our study includes the perspectives of students who engaged in intercultural UX experiences, as well as the perspectives of the faculty who designed those student experiences through an intercultural partnership. We report on how each program was created, developed, and iterated upon, describing program goals and student experiences across both programs from student and instructor perspectives. We demonstrate the complexity of UX educational experiences on an international scale, concluding with opportunities for intercultural engagement and the potential for links among education, profession, culture, and pedagogy.
Keywords
ux education, design education, comparative education, cross-cultural ux
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs_lxd2021.11.170
Citation
Li, Z., Gray, C.M., Toombs, A.L., McDonald, K., Marinovic, L.,and Liu, W.(2021) Cross-cultural UX pedagogy: a China–US partnership, in Bohemia, E., Nielsen, L.M., Pan, L., Börekçi, N.A.G.Z., Zhang, Y. (eds.), Learn X Design 2021: Engaging with challenges in design education, 24-26 September, Shandong University of Art & Design, Jinan, China. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs_lxd2021.11.170
Creative Commons License
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Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Cross-cultural UX pedagogy: a China–US partnership
The recent emergence of new undergraduate and graduate design programs with a focus specific to User Experience (UX) offers new opportunities to engage with the complexity of these educational practices. In this paper, we report on a series of ten interviews with students and faculty to describe cross-cultural connections between two UX-focused programs, one in China and one in the United States. Our study includes the perspectives of students who engaged in intercultural UX experiences, as well as the perspectives of the faculty who designed those student experiences through an intercultural partnership. We report on how each program was created, developed, and iterated upon, describing program goals and student experiences across both programs from student and instructor perspectives. We demonstrate the complexity of UX educational experiences on an international scale, concluding with opportunities for intercultural engagement and the potential for links among education, profession, culture, and pedagogy.