HCI education reflects the continual evolution of HCI, embracing the changing landscapes of technology, infrastructure,
and technology use. This forum aims to provide a platform for HCI educators, practitioners, researchers, and students
to share their perspectives, reflections, and experiences related to HCI education. — Sukeshini Grandhi, Editor
FORUM HCI EDUCATION
teach these workshops and to serve as
role models for the younger students.
THE HUMAN-CENTERED
DESIGN CHARRETTE
The charrette gives K– 12 students
hands-on experience with activities
and methodologies commonly
used in the human-centered design
discipline. Students are given a design
challenge, such as developing a citizen-science application. In one charrette
conducted in a coastal town, they were
asked to create an app that allows a
person in their community to collect
information that helps scientists learn
something about a topic. Students
brainstormed about potential users
and chose one as a target client. In this
case, students chose to design an app
for local fishermen. They identified
the fishermen’s needs, which at the
time were concerned with a declining
salmon population. The students
drew storyboards with the scenario
describing how the fishermen would
use the app: to help scientists track
salmon-migration patterns and
understand where the fish are (or
aren’t). They created interaction flows
highlighting the structure of the app
(Figure 1), sketched screen interfaces,
and developed an interactive prototype
of the app using the Marvel software
tool (Figure 2). At the end of the
workshop, the students demonstrated
their prototypes for this salmon-tracking app. We found that design
challenges such as citizen science
are effective at creating engagement
throughout the design process for
students in both middle and high
schools in a variety of courses.
I was taught as a young child that you lift
as you climb, meaning you pull someone
with you and assist them…
— Layla Ibrahim, HCDE senior
The Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE) department at the University of Washington (U W) organizes a variety of K– 12 outreach
activities [ 1], including workshops for
design thinking, user research, and
prototyping. The outreach program
raises awareness about the field of
human-centered design for young
learners. These activities are fast-paced, take a hands-on approach,
and are customized for each group
of student participants. In this
article, we present an approach for
introducing human-centered design
to K– 12 students by empowering
undergraduate students to develop and
teach these outreach workshops.
A large number of our undergraduate
students elect to participate in our
outreach program each year. We
have worked with thousands of K– 12
students in the state of Washington, in
a variety of settings, urban, suburban,
rural, and tribal, in diverse public
and private schools. We have also
participated in events organized on
the U W campus by groups such as the
College of Engineering (Engineering
Discovery Days), Society for Women
Engineers, Women in Science and
Engineering ( WiSE), and the National
Society of Black Engineers.
To introduce K– 12 students to
the field of human-centered design
(and more generally to STEM
disciplines), HCDE students develop
and lead a workshop curriculum, the
human-centered design charrette.
In the charrette, K– 12 students
learn to design a website or a mobile
application while keeping the users of
the technology at the forefront of their
thinking and making.
Here, we discuss how HCDE
students take a human-centered
approach to doing outreach. They
design charrette workshops that fit
the needs and interests of the target
students by engaging teachers in
co-designing the activities. We also
discuss the different ways in which
we adapt the workshop curriculum to
the interests of the students who will
get to experience it, as well as to their
classroom setting. We describe how
we scaffold educational experiences
for service learning that empower
undergraduate students to design and
Elena Agapie and Andrew Davidson, University of Washington
Human-Centered
Design Charrettes
for K– 12 Outreach
Insights
→ Hands-on, human-centered
design workshops are
effective for outreach, helping
motivate K– 12 students to
pursue STEM fields.
→ Empowering undergraduate
students to lead charrettes
in service-learning study
opportunities allows them
to serve as mentors and
role models.
→ Co-designing workshops
with K– 12 teachers allows the
customization of workshops
to make them relevant
and engaging.