The workshop ‘How Designers Teach’ is intended to be a discussion forum on different issues in design and human-computer interaction (HCI) education. In 2002 – 2004 the organizers carried out an extensive study based on in-depth interviews with design educators. The results of this study are available in form of the doctoral thesis of Konrad Baumann. This thesis is based on the assumption that the methodical heritage acquired from science and engineering can become a stumbling block in an environment where the work of a designer is needed, i.e. in the new disciplines of user interface design and interaction design or human-computer interaction (HCI). Didactics of these disciplines should better be rooted in the methodology of design education.

Starting from Mitch Kapor‘s (1990) postulate that ‘we need to create a professional discipline of software design’ and that ‘software designers should be trained more like architects than like computer scientists’, the aim was to find didactical approaches specific for design education and to explore whether and how they can be used for the new design disciplines related to information and communication technology.

An interview-based study among educators in architecture and other design disciplines was carried out. In this study eleven in-depth interviews based on a guideline with seventy-five questions were carried out, recorded on tape, transcribed and if necessary translated into English.

The following people contributed to the study: Konrad Baumann (author of the study), Peter Purgathofer (supervisor of the study), John Zimmerman, Pelle Ehn, Orhan Kipcak, Günter Domenig, Michael Szyszkowitz, Andreas Gruber, Joseph Gründler, Gerhard Heufler, Urs Hirschberg, Fiona Raby, Rob van Kranenburg.

At the beginning of the content analysis the large amount of text was sorted by a number-based approach. After clustering the information a comparison with literature on didactics and design theory was made. Related work is Lawson‘s (1984, 1997) ‘How Designers Think’ and Gedenryd‘s (1998) ‘How Designers Work’, amongst others.

Among the highlights of this study are findings about teaching methods in design like master classes or studios, the evaluation of project work in so-called final critique sessions or ‘final crits’ involving external experts, training methods for design like the handover of projects, where an exercise is divided into distinct phases and the artefact is repeatedly handed from one student to another one, the important roles of interdisciplinary work, and student exchange. In general no distinct schools of design education but a large variety of different methods could be identified. Every educator combines them to his or her individual portfolio. Individualism and the importance of the educator‘s personal way of teaching is the only common denominator. Design education is definitely in a period of transition mainly driven by the technological changes.

In order to present the outcomes appropriately the thesis features a variety of overview tables and detailed visual representations of the results of this study.

AIMS of the WORKSHOP

The aims of the workshop are

(1) to give feedback about the outcomes of the study to the contributors and the HCI education community, and

(2) to generate further discussion that should lead to a better insight in the field of didactics of design and HCI.

During the workshop the organizers intend to present the results with the help of the overview tables to the workshop attendees. The workshop time will be split into dedicated discussion time slots for specific topics like issues of grading, group work, and theory versus practice.

The results of the workshop will be presented as a poster during the conference, as well as in a report, to be published afterwards.

The number of attendees is limited to 24 including the 4 organizers.

The expected audience is educators in various related disciplines at universities and design schools. The disciplines range from architectural design to interaction design, psychology and software engineering. A major part of the attendees is expected to come from the supporting organizations, i.e. IFIP WG 13.1, CONVIVIO, and IIID.

MAIN INTERACT WEBSITE: www.interact2005.org

References
Bauman K. (2004) How Designers Teach – a Qualitative Research on Design Didactics, Doctoral Thesis supervised by Peter Purgathofer, submitted in July 2004 at the Institute for Design and Assessment of Technology, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria.
Kapor M (1991) A Software Design Manifesto, Dr. Dobb‘s Journal, vol. 16, no. 1, 62-67, Jan. 1991.
Lawson (1984, 1997). How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. first published 1980, completely revised third edition 1997, Oxford: Butterworth Architectural Press, 1998.
Gedenryd (1998). How Designers Work. PhD Thesis; Lund University Cognitive Studies 75.