HCI and Design Research Education - A Creative Approach

This paper describes the latest insights in HCI education inspired and informed by the creative disciplines, how education is implemented, and how it could be fed back into the artistic fields. It contains examples, contrasts different methods, and discusses and concludes the findings for HCI education in general. A course on HCI is described which is supported by a creative approach, related to art, architecture and music. Experiences are described in of HCI tools and insights such as structured design methods, interaction frameworks and interface design heuristics relevant to the arts fields. 1. HCI and Education The domain of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is a multidisciplinary area involved in research, development and design, which should all be reflected in the education of HCI. HCI is a relatively new field combining human sciences, engineering and design. In addition to developing its own knowledge and practices, it draws knowledge from a number of more established disciplines, as shown in Fig. 1 below. On the left hand side of Fig. 1 a number of relevant human science disciplines are shown, on the right hand side relevant engineering disciplines are listed while the list on the top gives an overview of the design disciplines. In the middle it is stated what it is about in this broad approach: the interaction between people and technology. The outer circle gives what can be called the metadisciplines: philosophy, art, mathematics, and science [4]. HCI and Design Research Education 91 The three main approaches to HCI historically are from (cognitive) psychology, computer science, and design. Although many research centres and HCI courses still reflect one of these biases, in the last years particularly we have seen the field mature to a new discipline combining the different approaches. Some of the major text books in this field are written by multiple authors from a variety of backgrounds reflecting the main approaches mentioned above [8, 25]. Even though the course described in this paper is based in a Computer Science department (at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam), it is set up and taught by people with various backgrounds and expertise in psychology, technology, design, and the arts. Fig. 1. An overview of related disciplines and HCI As it is increasingly understood that the design of interaction is about creating experiences, the HCI field can often borrow from the knowledge that creative disciplines have developed, such as theatre, music and video art. Methods, processes and approaches from these field inform the HCI field, while at the same time HCI teaching can help the artistic and design disciplines to develop interactions in a more user / audience centred, structured and formal way. The way the courses that are discussed in this paper are set up, reflects this interrelation between HCI and creativity.