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The goal of this Learning Path is to list helpful resources into a curriculum that a motivated beginner can follow to learn the essentials of UX Design. Design

The goal of this Learning Path is to list helpful resources into a curriculum that a motivated beginner can follow to learn the essentials of UX Design. Designers of Hacker News, we'd love your help on 2 things: 1. We'd love your feedback on the curriculum itself. e.g. Do the topics and flow look right? Are the projects sufficient? 2. If you're a UX designer who loves to teach and mentor new professionals, I'd love to talk. We're planning a learning experiment that combines the power of the internet with one-on-one human contact.

paulojreis 12y ago
Well, I can't find references/materials on Human-Computer Interaction. It seems rather strange that there isn't a single reference to HCI in a UX curriculum. I know it may sound like the "hard"/science-y part, but HCI is fundamental - quite a few principles (such as Fitt's law or the 10 Nielsen & Molich heuristics) came from HCI research and stood the test of time - they're still valid, today. Usability testing was also built out of HCI research. Also: cognitive modeling, the focus on the user, and so on. tl;dr: You should introduce HCI from the start. There's open courseware on the subject. You can't claim to know (or teach) the essentials of UX design without a good knowledge of HCI as a subject.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  HCI itself has little bearing on design even if the HCI community wished otherwise. Fitts' law came from the experimental psychology field...given that HCI didn't even exist in the 50s and 60s. Most of its lessons are codified into easy digest principles. Don't forget Hick's law, which is also useful when designing menus (also experimental psychology).
  - paulojreis 12y ago
    I can't agree with you. HCI has a lot of impact on design, in spite of not being acknowledged (or even known) by most of the practitioners. What the aspiring UX designers are reading (in Smashing Magazine & others) is, mostly, rephrasings of HCI knowledge. Most UX methods and guidelines come from HCI (and HCI, of course, comes from other disciplines).
    - nchlswu 12y ago
      > Most UX methods and guidelines come from HCI (and HCI, of course, comes from other disciplines). I don't think you can simplify it to HCI preceding UX or UCD methodologies. As you point out, HCI of course comes from other disciplines and just like the field of UX, it's borrowed a lot. HCI, Human Factors, Psychology, etc., all borrow techniques from others (as you've acknowledged)and a lot of what they do has been developed in parallel. A lot of UX and design methods were developed in parallel by designers with at traditional design background or others without formal research backgrounds. Despite UX being characterized as a science or more rigorous than traditional design, it is largely a pragmatic practice.
    - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
      I'm betting you are on the HCI side and not the design side right? I'm a researcher, I know lots of HCI researchers, I know lots of designers, and the overlap in what the two do is so is slight. Most work on HCI is at the test, measure level, very much a science, while design is a different method from science in its own right. Is knowing some HCI useful for design? Sure, but necessary? The best designers I've worked with have none, while going from HCI to design requires a drastic shift in mindset. Keep in mind that HCI first and foremost is a computer science discipline practiced exclusively by computer scientists. Design is mostly practiced by those trained as designers, in design school by people who have never been remotely near HCI. They are definitely analytic, but are not data driven (well, google, and in the web world where engineers have taken over, but that's a new trend and not necessarily a lasting one), their method is design thinking rather than the scientific method.
      - paulojreis 12y ago
        > Most work on HCI is at the test, measure level, very much a science Most work on HCI was at the measure level. If you follow HCI research, you may notice a trend: lots of publications based on ethnographic methods, qualitative approaches and the like. HCI (as in "HCI academic research") is, nowadays, much closer (methodologically) to design thinking than to experimental psychology. > I'm betting you are on the HCI side and not the design side right? I do both. I work in the industry (UI design, front-end dev, evaluation) and I'm a PhD student. > Keep in mind that HCI first and foremost is a computer science discipline I've the opposite opinion on this. From all the disciplines that "inform" HCI, CS would be the least important. But ... > practiced exclusively by computer scientists. I guess you're right on this, at least in the academia. I do have the impression that most HCI researchers have a CS background. But, at least in my country, this is mostly because CS departments have much more funding to hire researchers than the others.
- rrrx3 12y ago
  I agree somewhat, however I wouldn't place a large emphasis on it at the first section... maybe section 2 or 3. There are some parts that are valuable to keep in mind all the time from HCI, but I don't think the hard numerical science is really salient for most people looking to break into the field. Find the threshold of academia vs practical application and stay firmly in the latter when sharing course materials.
  - gautambay 12y ago
    Which parts of HCI do you think are the most important to include in a curriculum like this?
    - rrrx3 12y ago
      Fitt's law, Hicks' law. Accessibility for sure. Light Ergonomics, relating to the mediums (mobile and desktop, probably)
      - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
        Both Fitt's and Hicks' law were found in the 50s by experimental psychologists. They are hardly exclusive to HCI. BTW, a good application of Hicks' law is in a book called "The psychology of menu selection: Designing cognitive control at the human/computer interface" (POMS) by Kent Norman. There is an online version: http://lap.umd.edu/POMS/ http://lap.umd.edu/POMS/
- gautambay 12y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. The author did include an HCI course in the extra recommended resources, right at the end. The challenge (I think) was that the HCI course on Coursera, at ~100 hrs of work, would be as long as the rest of the curriculum. Are there topics within HCI that you think are more fundamental than others?
  - paulojreis 12y ago
    I think you could summarize, instead of focusing on specific topics. - Introduce HCI as a discipline (multi/transdisciplinary origins); - The Human (cognitive, social and motor aspects); - The Computer (I/O devices and modalities, interface types); - The relation (importance of context, tasks); - Usability (what it is? Start with ISO 9241 definition - "The effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specified users achieve specified goals in particular environments". Refer also to e.g. Sharp, Rogers & Preece "usability objectives", mostly to introduce safety as part of usability); - Guidelines (heuristics, design "rules"); - Introduce evaluation (testing/empirical vs. inspection/analytical; method examples and when to use which one; you may also introduce the usage physiological measures). I may be missing something, but I think this would give a clear overview of the the field - what's at stake when you design interfaces.
    - gautambay 12y ago
      Thanks, super helpful!
darushimo 12y ago
I'm a little confused--is the first video in the 3rd section ("intro to the design of everyday things") really an entire course? If so, i think the time-to-complete estimate (1 hr) should be changed...If it's not, it'd be great if the particular videos to be watched were noted.
- parul 12y ago
  Seems like "Design of Everyday Things" is a really short course, with only 3 Chapters and each video of 1-2 minutes. The total video lecture time for the entire course could well be ~1 hour. The project (timebank) is what will take more time and the estimate for that in Section 3.3 is 8 hours.
  - jdebari 12y ago
    The course Design of Everyday Things is short. There are around 5 short videos is each of the three sections, but there are exercises too.

paulojreis 12y ago

Well, I can't find references/materials on Human-Computer Interaction. It seems rather strange that there isn't a single reference to HCI in a UX curriculum. I know it may sound like the "hard"/science-y part, but HCI is fundamental - quite a few principles (such as Fitt's law or the 10 Nielsen & Molich heuristics) came from HCI research and stood the test of time - they're still valid, today. Usability testing was also built out of HCI research. Also: cognitive modeling, the focus on the user, and so on. tl;dr: You should introduce HCI from the start. There's open courseware on the subject. You can't claim to know (or teach) the essentials of UX design without a good knowledge of HCI as a subject.

seanmcdirmid 12y ago
HCI itself has little bearing on design even if the HCI community wished otherwise. Fitts' law came from the experimental psychology field...given that HCI didn't even exist in the 50s and 60s. Most of its lessons are codified into easy digest principles. Don't forget Hick's law, which is also useful when designing menus (also experimental psychology).
- paulojreis 12y ago
  I can't agree with you. HCI has a lot of impact on design, in spite of not being acknowledged (or even known) by most of the practitioners. What the aspiring UX designers are reading (in Smashing Magazine & others) is, mostly, rephrasings of HCI knowledge. Most UX methods and guidelines come from HCI (and HCI, of course, comes from other disciplines).
  - nchlswu 12y ago
    > Most UX methods and guidelines come from HCI (and HCI, of course, comes from other disciplines). I don't think you can simplify it to HCI preceding UX or UCD methodologies. As you point out, HCI of course comes from other disciplines and just like the field of UX, it's borrowed a lot. HCI, Human Factors, Psychology, etc., all borrow techniques from others (as you've acknowledged)and a lot of what they do has been developed in parallel. A lot of UX and design methods were developed in parallel by designers with at traditional design background or others without formal research backgrounds. Despite UX being characterized as a science or more rigorous than traditional design, it is largely a pragmatic practice.
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    I'm betting you are on the HCI side and not the design side right? I'm a researcher, I know lots of HCI researchers, I know lots of designers, and the overlap in what the two do is so is slight. Most work on HCI is at the test, measure level, very much a science, while design is a different method from science in its own right. Is knowing some HCI useful for design? Sure, but necessary? The best designers I've worked with have none, while going from HCI to design requires a drastic shift in mindset. Keep in mind that HCI first and foremost is a computer science discipline practiced exclusively by computer scientists. Design is mostly practiced by those trained as designers, in design school by people who have never been remotely near HCI. They are definitely analytic, but are not data driven (well, google, and in the web world where engineers have taken over, but that's a new trend and not necessarily a lasting one), their method is design thinking rather than the scientific method.
    - paulojreis 12y ago
      > Most work on HCI is at the test, measure level, very much a science Most work on HCI was at the measure level. If you follow HCI research, you may notice a trend: lots of publications based on ethnographic methods, qualitative approaches and the like. HCI (as in "HCI academic research") is, nowadays, much closer (methodologically) to design thinking than to experimental psychology. > I'm betting you are on the HCI side and not the design side right? I do both. I work in the industry (UI design, front-end dev, evaluation) and I'm a PhD student. > Keep in mind that HCI first and foremost is a computer science discipline I've the opposite opinion on this. From all the disciplines that "inform" HCI, CS would be the least important. But ... > practiced exclusively by computer scientists. I guess you're right on this, at least in the academia. I do have the impression that most HCI researchers have a CS background. But, at least in my country, this is mostly because CS departments have much more funding to hire researchers than the others.
rrrx3 12y ago
I agree somewhat, however I wouldn't place a large emphasis on it at the first section... maybe section 2 or 3. There are some parts that are valuable to keep in mind all the time from HCI, but I don't think the hard numerical science is really salient for most people looking to break into the field. Find the threshold of academia vs practical application and stay firmly in the latter when sharing course materials.
- gautambay 12y ago
  Which parts of HCI do you think are the most important to include in a curriculum like this?
  - rrrx3 12y ago
    Fitt's law, Hicks' law. Accessibility for sure. Light Ergonomics, relating to the mediums (mobile and desktop, probably)
    - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
      Both Fitt's and Hicks' law were found in the 50s by experimental psychologists. They are hardly exclusive to HCI. BTW, a good application of Hicks' law is in a book called "The psychology of menu selection: Designing cognitive control at the human/computer interface" (POMS) by Kent Norman. There is an online version: http://lap.umd.edu/POMS/ http://lap.umd.edu/POMS/
gautambay 12y ago
Thanks for the feedback. The author did include an HCI course in the extra recommended resources, right at the end. The challenge (I think) was that the HCI course on Coursera, at ~100 hrs of work, would be as long as the rest of the curriculum. Are there topics within HCI that you think are more fundamental than others?
- paulojreis 12y ago
  I think you could summarize, instead of focusing on specific topics. - Introduce HCI as a discipline (multi/transdisciplinary origins); - The Human (cognitive, social and motor aspects); - The Computer (I/O devices and modalities, interface types); - The relation (importance of context, tasks); - Usability (what it is? Start with ISO 9241 definition - "The effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which specified users achieve specified goals in particular environments". Refer also to e.g. Sharp, Rogers & Preece "usability objectives", mostly to introduce safety as part of usability); - Guidelines (heuristics, design "rules"); - Introduce evaluation (testing/empirical vs. inspection/analytical; method examples and when to use which one; you may also introduce the usage physiological measures). I may be missing something, but I think this would give a clear overview of the the field - what's at stake when you design interfaces.
  - gautambay 12y ago
    Thanks, super helpful!

darushimo 12y ago

I'm a little confused--is the first video in the 3rd section ("intro to the design of everyday things") really an entire course? If so, i think the time-to-complete estimate (1 hr) should be changed...If it's not, it'd be great if the particular videos to be watched were noted.

parul 12y ago
Seems like "Design of Everyday Things" is a really short course, with only 3 Chapters and each video of 1-2 minutes. The total video lecture time for the entire course could well be ~1 hour. The project (timebank) is what will take more time and the estimate for that in Section 3.3 is 8 hours.
- jdebari 12y ago
  The course Design of Everyday Things is short. There are around 5 short videos is each of the three sections, but there are exercises too.